Efficient production of plant secondary metabolites through global metabolic engineering in yeast

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K14069
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 27040:Biofunction and bioprocess engineering-related
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: Yamada Ryosuke 大阪府立大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 准教授 (40608626)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 酵母 / 代謝工学 / 植物二次代謝産物 / CRISPR / セスキテルペン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The use of genetically modified yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to produce a variety of useful chemicals has attracted much attention. Patchoulol is a sesquiterpenoid alcohol and is an industrially important compound. In this study, I aimed to create yeast that can efficiently produce patchoulol by highly expressing the patchoulol synthesis gene in yeast and optimizing the entire mevalonate pathway involved in patchoulol synthesis.
I developed an original method for optimizing a wide range of metabolic pathways in yeast and succeeded in creating yeast that efficiently produces patchoulol by optimizing the expression levels of nine different genes. The constructed yeast produced 42.1 mg/L and 19.8 mg/L/d of patchoulol.

Free Research Field

生物化学工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、酵母の広範囲の代謝経路を最適化する独自の手法を開発し、パチョロールを効率的に生産する酵母を創製することに成功した。本技術は、解糖経路やメバロン酸経路などを経由する、他の化合物を生産する代謝経路の最適化にも容易に応用可能である。従って、今後は本手法を用い、様々なバイオ燃料、バルクケミカル、ファインケミカルなどの有用物質を効率的に生産する酵母を創製することが期待される。