A metabolic engineering strategy for producing free fatty acids by the Yarrowia lipolytica yeast based on impairment of glycerol metabolism

Advanced metabolic Engineering strategies for the sustainable production of free fatty acids and their derivatives using yeast

The biological production of lipids presents a sustainable method for generating fuels and chemicals. Recognized as safe and enhanced by advanced synthetic biology and metabolic engineering tools, yeasts are becoming versatile hosts for industrial applications. However, lipids accumulate predominantly as triacylglycerides in yeasts, which are suboptimal for industrial uses. Thus, there have been efforts to directly produce free fatty acids and their derivatives in yeast, such as fatty alcohols, fatty aldehydes, and fatty acid ethyl esters. This review offers a comprehensive overview of yeast metabolic engineering strategies to produce free fatty acids and their derivatives. This study also explores current challenges and future perspectives for sustainable industrial lipid production, particularly focusing on engineering strategies that enable yeast to utilize alternative carbon sources such as CO2, methanol, and acetate, moving beyond traditional sugars. This review will guide further advancements in employing yeasts for environmentally friendly and economically viable lipid production technologies.

Engineering Strategies for Efficient Bioconversion of Glycerol to Value-Added Products by Yarrowia lipolytica

Yarrowia lipolytica has been a valuable biotechnological workhorse for the production of commercially important biochemicals for over 70 years. The knowledge gained so far on the native biosynthetic pathways, as well as the availability of numerous systems and synthetic biology tools, enabled not only the regulation and the redesign of the existing metabolic pathways, but also the introduction of novel synthetic ones; further consolidating the position of the yeast in industrial biotechnology. However, for the development of competitive and sustainable biotechnological production processes, bioengineering should be reinforced by bioprocess optimization strategies. Although there are many published reviews on the bioconversion of various carbon sources to value-added products by Yarrowia lipolytica, fewer works have focused on reviewing up-to-date strain, medium, and process engineering strategies with an aim to emphasize the significance of integrated engineering approaches. The ultimate goal of this work is to summarize the necessary knowledge and inspire novel routes to manipulate at a systems level the yeast biosynthetic machineries by combining strain and bioprocess engineering. Due to the increasing surplus of biodiesel-derived waste glycerol and the favored glycerol-utilization metabolic pathways of Y. lipolytica over other carbon sources, the present review focuses on pure and crude glycerol-based biomanufacturing.

Application of Random Mutagenesis and Synthetic FadR Promoter for de novo Production of ω-Hydroxy Fatty Acid in Yarrowia lipolytica

As a means to develop oleaginous biorefinery, Yarrowia lipolytica was utilized to produce ω-hydroxy palmitic acid from glucose using evolutionary metabolic engineering and synthetic FadR promoters for cytochrome P450 (CYP) expression. First, a base strain was constructed to produce free fatty acids (FFAs) from glucose using metabolic engineering strategies. Subsequently, through ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-induced random mutagenesis and fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) screening, improved FFA overproducers were screened. Additionally, synthetic promoters containing bacterial FadR binding sequences for CYP expression were designed to respond to the surge of the concentration of FFAs to activate the ω-hydroxylating pathway, resulting in increased transcriptional activity by 14 times from the third day of culture compared to the first day. Then, endogenous alk5 was screened and expressed using the synthetic FadR promoter in the developed strain for the production of ω-hydroxy palmitic acid. By implementing the synthetic FadR promoter, cell growth and production phases could be efficiently decoupled. Finally, in batch fermentation, we demonstrated de novo production of 160 mg/L of ω-hydroxy palmitic acid using FmeN3-TR1-alk5 in nitrogen-limited media. This study presents an excellent example of the production of ω-hydroxy fatty acids using synthetic promoters with bacterial transcriptional regulator (i.e., FadR) binding sequences in oleaginous yeasts.

Yarrowia lipolytica as an Oleaginous Platform for the Production of Value-Added Fatty Acid-Based Bioproducts

The microbial fermentation process has been used as an alternative pathway to the production of value-added natural products. Of the microorganisms, Yarrowia lipolytica, as an oleaginous platform, is able to produce fatty acid-derived biofuels and biochemicals. Nowadays, there are growing progresses on the production of value-added fatty acid-based bioproducts in Y. lipolytica. However, there are fewer reviews performing the metabolic engineering strategies and summarizing the current production of fatty acid-based bioproducts in Y. lipolytica. To this end, we briefly provide the fatty acid metabolism, including fatty acid biosynthesis, transportation, and degradation. Then, we introduce the various metabolic engineering strategies for increasing bioproduct accumulation in Y. lipolytica. Further, the advanced progress in the production of fatty acid-based bioproducts by Y. lipolytica, including nutraceuticals, biofuels, and biochemicals, is summarized. This review will provide attractive thoughts for researchers working in the field of Y. lipolytica.

Synthesis of high-titer alka(e)nes in Yarrowia lipolytica is enabled by a discovered mechanism

Alka(e)nes are ideal fuel components for aviation, long-distance transport, and shipping. They are typically derived from fossil fuels and accounting for 24% of difficult-to-eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. The synthesis of alka(e)nes in Yarrowia lipolytica from CO₂-neutral feedstocks represents an attractive alternative. Here we report that the high-titer synthesis of alka(e)nes in Yarrowia lipolytica harboring a fatty acid photodecarboxylase (CvFAP) is enabled by a discovered pathway. We find that acyl-CoAs, rather than free fatty acids (FFAs), are the preferred substrate for CvFAP. This finding allows us to debottleneck the pathway and optimize fermentation conditions so that we are able to redirect 89% of acyl-CoAs from the synthesis of neutral lipids to alka(e)nes and reach titers of 1.47 g/L from glucose. Two other CO₂-derived substrates, wheat straw and acetate, are also demonstrated to be effective in producing alka(e)nes. Overall, our technology could advance net-zero emissions by providing CO₂-neutral and energy-dense liquid biofuels.

Alka(e)nes with chain lengths in C5-C23 range are ideal fuel components. Here, the authors report that high-titer production of alak(e)nes in pathway engineered Yarrowia lipolytica, which is enabled by the finding that acyl-CoA is another substrate of fatty acid photodecarboxylase (FAP).

Ultrasound-assisted hydrolysis of lard for free fatty acids catalyzed by combined two lipases in aqueous medium

Lard is a by-product of animal processing. It is inexpensive compared with vegetable oils; however, its use is limited due to the high calorific value and high-saturated fatty acid content. While using lard as the source of free fatty acids (FFA) can significantly increase its utilization value. This study aimed to research the method on efficient hydrolysis of lard catalyzed by combi-lipases and assisted with ultrasound pretreatment. A 1,3-specific lipase from Rhizomucor miehei (termed pRML, 1540 U/mL) and a nonspecific mono- and diacylglycerol lipase from Penicillium cyclopium (termed MDL, 2000 U/mL) were used as biocatalysts. Results showed that the maximum hydrolysis rate of lard after 6 h at 45°C by using pRML and MDL alone was, respectively, 39.9% and 8.5%. When pRML combined with MDL (combi-lipases), hydrolysis rate can reach to 78.1%. While combi-lipases were assisted with 5 min ultrasound pretreatment before the reaction, the hydrolysis rate can further increase to 97%. The combi-lipases with different specificity and assisted with ultrasound pretreatment may be a useful technology for the enzyme production of FFA from complex lipid substrates, such as lard.

Metabolic engineering for increased lipid accumulation in Yarrowia lipolytica - A Review

Current energy security and climate change policies encourage the development and utilization of bioenergy. Oleaginous yeasts provide a particularly attractive platform for the sustainable production of biofuels and industrial chemicals due to their ability to accumulate high amounts of lipids. In particular, microbial lipids in the form of triacylglycerides (TAGs) produced from renewable feedstocks have attracted considerable attention because they can be directly used in the production of biodiesel and oleochemicals analogous to petrochemicals. As an oleaginous yeast that is generally regarded as safe, Yarrowia lipolytica has been extensively studied, with large amounts of data on its lipid metabolism, genetic tools, and genome sequencing and annotation. In this review, we highlight the newest strategies for increasing lipid accumulation using metabolic engineering and summarize the research advances on the overaccumulation of lipids in Y. lipolytica. Finally, perspectives for future engineering approaches are proposed.

Pathway engineering and medium optimization for α-farnesene biosynthesis in oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

Farnesene is a typical sesquiterpene with applications as fragrance, flavor and precursor for the synthesis of vitamin E/K1. In this study, a series of strategies were employed to facilitate α-farnesene accumulation in Yarrowia lipolytica. Among them, the promoter optimization of OptFSLERG20, Sc-tHMG1 and IDI resulted in more than 62 % increase in α-farnesene production. Together with the overexpression of Yl-HMGR and ERG19, α-farnesene content was significantly improved by more than 3.5 times. The best metabolic engineered strain obtained was therefore used for a uniform design in shake flasks to determine the optimal medium compositions. Furthermore, a maximum α-farnesene production of approximately 2.57 g/L (34 mg/g DCW) was obtained in fed-batch fermentation where glycerol was supplemented as the feeding carbon source when initial glucose was depleted. This study has laid a good foundation for the development of Y. lipolytica as a promising chassis microbial cell for heterologous biosynthesis of α-farnesene and other sesquiterpenes.

Investigating the Influence of Glycerol on the Utilization of Glucose in Yarrowia lipolytica Using RNA-Seq-Based Transcriptomics

Glycerol is considered as a promising substrate for biotechnological applications and the non-conventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has been used extensively for the valorization of this compound. Contrary to S. cerevisiae, Y. lipolytica seems to prefer glycerol over glucose and it has been reported previously that the presence of glycerol can suppress the consumption of glucose in co-substrate fermentations. Based on these observations, we hypothesized glycerol repression-like effects in Y. lipolytica, which are converse to well described carbon repression mechanisms ensuring the prioritized use of glucose (e.g., in S. cerevisiae). We therefore aimed to investigate this effect on the level of transcription. Strains varying in the degree of glucose suppression were chosen and characterized in high-resolution growth screenings, resulting in the detection of different growth phenotypes under glycerol-glucose mixed conditions. Two strains, IBT and W29, were selected and cultivated in chemostats using glucose, glycerol and glucose/glycerol as carbon sources, followed by an RNA-Seq-based transcriptome analysis. We could show that several transporters were significantly higher expressed in W29, which is potentially related to the observed physiological differences. However, most of the expression variation between the strains were regardless of the carbon source applied, and cross-comparisons revealed that the strain-specific carbon source responses underwent in the opposite direction. A deeper analysis of the substrate specific carbon source response led to the identification of several differentially expressed genes with orthologous functions related to signal transduction and transcriptional regulation. This study provides an initial investigation on potentially novel carbon source regulation mechanisms in yeasts.

Simultaneous lipid biosynthesis and recovery for oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

BACKGROUND

Recent trends in bioprocessing have underlined the significance of lignocellulosic biomass conversions for biofuel production. These conversions demand at least 90% energy upgradation of cellulosic sugars to generate renewable drop-in biofuel precursors (Heff/C ~ 2). Chemical methods fail to achieve this without substantial loss of carbon; whereas, oleaginous biological systems propose a greener upgradation route by producing oil from sugars with 30% theoretical yields. However, these oleaginous systems cannot compete with the commercial volumes of vegetable oils in terms of overall oil yields and productivities. One of the significant challenges in the commercial exploitation of these microbial oils lies in the inefficient recovery of the produced oil. This issue has been addressed using highly selective oil capturing agents (OCA), which allow a concomitant microbial oil production and in situ oil recovery process.

RESULTS

Adsorbent-based oil capturing agents were employed for simultaneous in situ oil recovery in the fermentative production broths. Yarrowia lipolytica, a model oleaginous yeast, was milked incessantly for oil production over 380 h in a media comprising of glucose as a sole carbon and nutrient source. This was achieved by continuous online capture of extracellular oil from the aqueous media and also the cell surface, by fluidizing the fermentation broth over an adsorbent bed of oil capturing agents (OCA). A consistent oil yield of 0.33 g per g of glucose consumed, corresponding to theoretical oil yield over glucose, was achieved using this approach. While the incorporation of the OCA increased the oil content up to 89% with complete substrate consumptions, it also caused an overall process integration.

CONCLUSION

The nondisruptive oil capture mediated by an OCA helped in accomplishing a trade-off between microbial oil production and its recovery. This strategy helped in realizing theoretically efficient sugar-to-oil bioconversions in a continuous production process. The process, therefore, endorses a sustainable production of molecular drop-in equivalents through oleaginous yeasts, representing as an absolute microbial oil factory.

Rewiring Yarrowia lipolytica toward triacetic acid lactone for materials generation

Polyketides represent an extremely diverse class of secondary metabolites often explored for their bioactive traits. These molecules are also attractive building blocks for chemical catalysis and polymerization. However, the use of polyketides in larger scale chemistry applications is stymied by limited titers and yields from both microbial and chemical production. Here, we demonstrate that an oleaginous organism (specifically, Yarrowia lipolytica) can overcome such production limitations owing to a natural propensity for high flux through acetyl-CoA. By exploring three distinct metabolic engineering strategies for acetyl-CoA precursor formation, we demonstrate that a previously uncharacterized pyruvate bypass pathway supports increased production of the polyketide triacetic acid lactone (TAL). Ultimately, we establish a strain capable of producing over 35% of the theoretical conversion yield to TAL in an unoptimized tube culture. This strain also obtained an averaged maximum titer of 35.9 ± 3.9 g/L with an achieved maximum specific productivity of 0.21 ± 0.03 g/L/h in bioreactor fermentation. Additionally, we illustrate that a β-oxidation-related overexpression (PEX10) can support high TAL production and is capable of achieving over 43% of the theoretical conversion yield under nitrogen starvation in a test tube. Next, through use of this bioproduct, we demonstrate the utility of polyketides like TAL to modify commodity materials such as poly(epichlorohydrin), resulting in an increased molecular weight and shift in glass transition temperature. Collectively, these findings establish an engineering strategy enabling unprecedented production from a type III polyketide synthase as well as establish a route through O-functionalization for converting polyketides into new materials.