| 1. |
- Li, Xiaowei, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Metabolic network remodelling enhances yeast’s fitness on xylose using aerobic glycolysis
- 2021
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In: Nature Catalysis. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2520-1158. ; 4:9, s. 783-796
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The reprogramming of metabolism in response to switching the carbon source from glucose to non-preferred carbon sources is well-studied for yeast. However, understanding how metabolic networks respond to utilize a non-natural carbon source such as xylose is limited due to the incomplete knowledge of cellular response mechanisms. Here we applied a combination of metabolic engineering, systems biology and adaptive laboratory evolution to gain insights into how yeast can perform a global rewiring of cellular processes to efficiently accompany metabolic transitions. Through metabolic engineering, we substantially enhanced the cell growth on xylose after the growth on glucose. Transcriptome analysis of the engineered strains demonstrated that multiple pathways were involved in the cellular reprogramming. Through genome resequencing of the evolved strains and reverse engineering, we further identified that SWI/SNF chromatin remodelling, osmotic response and aldehyde reductase were responsible for the improved growth. Combined, our analysis showed that glycerol-3-phosphate and xylitol serve as two key metabolites that affect cellular adaptation to growth on xylose. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
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| 2. |
- Pereira, Rui, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Metabolic Engineering of Yeast
- 2021
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In: Metabolic Engineering: Concepts and Applications: Volume 13a and 13b. - : Wiley. ; , s. 689-733
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Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This chapter focuses on a few examples that can serve as illustrations of how powerful yeast metabolic engineering stands today. Yeast, especially S. cerevisiae, plays an essential role in bioethanol production. Rapid ethanol production by yeast cells makes the fermentation process less susceptible to contamination. Higher alcohols are attractive due to some advantages compared with bioethanol, such as higher energy density, better blending into gasoline, higher octane value, lower hygroscopicity, and less corrosivity. The ethanol production process in the industry is mainly achieved through simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Production of insulin, by volume the largest pharmaceutical protein produced, has paved the way for a wide use of S. cerevisiae for production of recombinant proteins. Virus like particles are proteins of virus capsid, which are produced by recombinant DNA technology and are important for the development of viral vaccines as they can self-assemble and display similar immunogenic properties as native viruses.
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| 3. |
- Qin, Ning, et al.
(author)
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Rewiring Central Carbon Metabolism Ensures Increased Provision of Acetyl-CoA and NADPH Required for 3-OH-Propionic Acid Production
- 2020
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In: ACS Synthetic Biology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2161-5063. ; 9:12, s. 3236-3244
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The central carbon metabolite acetyl-CoA and the cofactor NADPH are important for the synthesis of a wide array of biobased products. Here, we constructed a platform yeast strain for improved provision of acetyl-CoA and NADPH, and used the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) as a case study. We first demonstrated that the integration of phosphoketolase and phosphotransacetylase improved 3-HP production by 41.9% and decreased glycerol production by 48.1% compared with that of the control strain. Then, to direct more carbon flux toward the pentose phosphate pathway, we reduced the expression of phosphoglucose isomerase by replacing its native promoter with a weaker promoter, and increased the expression of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase by replacing their native promoters with stronger promoters. This further improved 3-HP production by 26.4%. Furthermore, to increase the NADPH supply we overexpressed cytosolic aldehyde dehydrogenase, and improved 3-HP production by another 10.5%. Together with optimizing enzyme expression of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and malonyl-CoA reductase, the final strain is able to produce 3-HP with a final titer of 864.5 mg/L, which is a more than 24-fold improvement compared with that of the starting strain. Our strategy combines the PK pathway with the oxidative pentose phosphate pathway for the efficient provision of acetyl-CoA and NADPH, which provides both a higher theoretical yield and overall yield than the reported yeast-based 3-HP production strategies via the malonyl-CoA reductase-dependent pathway and sheds light on the construction of efficient platform cell factories for other products.
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| 4. |
- Liu, Quanli, 1988, et al.
(author)
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Rewiring carbon metabolism in yeast for high level production of aromatic chemicals
- 2019
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723 .- 2041-1723. ; 10:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The production of bioactive plant compounds using microbial hosts is considered a safe, cost-competitive and scalable approach to their production. However, microbial production of some compounds like aromatic amino acid (AAA)-derived chemicals, remains an outstanding metabolic engineering challenge. Here we present the construction of a Saccharomyces cerevisiae platform strain able to produce high levels of p-coumaric acid, an AAA-derived precursor for many commercially valuable chemicals. This is achieved through engineering the AAA biosynthesis pathway, introducing a phosphoketalose-based pathway to divert glycolytic flux towards erythrose 4-phosphate formation, and optimizing carbon distribution between glycolysis and the AAA biosynthesis pathway by replacing the promoters of several important genes at key nodes between these two pathways. This results in a maximum p-coumaric acid titer of 12.5 g L−1 and a maximum yield on glucose of 154.9 mg g−1.
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| 5. |
- Zhan, Chunjun, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Reprogramming methanol utilization pathways to convert Saccharomyces cerevisiae to a synthetic methylotroph
- 2023
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In: Nature Catalysis. - 2520-1158. ; 6:5, s. 435-450
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Methanol, an organic one-carbon (C1) compound, represents an attractive alternative carbon source for microbial fermentation. Despite considerable advancements in methanol utilization by prokaryotes such as Escherichia coli, engineering eukaryotic model organisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae into synthetic methylotrophs remains challenging. Here, an engineered module circuit strategy combined with adaptive laboratory evolution was applied to engineer S. cerevisiae to use methanol as the sole carbon source. We revealed that the evolved glyoxylate-based serine pathway plays an important role in methanol-dependent growth by promoting formaldehyde assimilation. Further, we determined that the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway was upregulated, resulting in an increased concentration of squalene and ergosterol in our evolved strain. These changes could potentially alleviate cell membrane damage in the presence of methanol. This work sets the stage for expanding the potential of exploiting S. cerevisiae as a potential organic one-carbon platform for biochemical or biofuel production. [Figure not available: see fulltext.].
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| 6. |
- Zhan, Chunjun, 1986, et al.
(author)
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Strategies and challenges with the microbial conversion of methanol to high-value chemicals
- 2021
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In: Biotechnology and Bioengineering. - : Wiley. - 0006-3592 .- 1097-0290. ; 118:10, s. 3655-3668
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- As alternatives to traditional fermentation substrates, methanol (CH3OH), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) represent promising one-carbon (C1) sources that are readily available at low-cost and share similar metabolic pathway. Of these C1 compounds, methanol is used as a carbon and energy source by native methylotrophs, and can be obtained from CO2 and CH4 by chemical catalysis. Therefore, constructing and rewiring methanol utilization pathways may enable the use of one-carbon sources for microbial fermentations. Recent bioengineering efforts have shown that both native and nonnative methylotrophic organisms can be engineered to convert methanol, together with other carbon sources, into biofuels and other commodity chemicals. However, many challenges remain and must be overcome before industrial-scale bioprocessing can be established using these engineered cell refineries. Here, we provide a comprehensive summary and comparison of methanol metabolic pathways from different methylotrophs, followed by a review of recent progress in engineering methanol metabolic pathways in vitro and in vivo to produce chemicals. We discuss the major challenges associated with establishing efficient methanol metabolic pathways in microbial cells, and propose improved designs for future engineering.
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| 7. |
- Chen, Xin, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Dataset for suppressors of amyloid-beta toxicity and their functions in recombinant protein production in yeast
- 2022
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In: Data in Brief. - : Elsevier BV. - 2352-3409. ; 42
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The production of recombinant proteins at high levels often induces stress-related phenotypes by protein misfolding or aggregation. These are similar to those of the yeast Alzheimer's disease (AD) model in which amyloid-beta peptides (A beta 42) were accumulated [1,2] . We have previously identified suppressors of A beta 42 cytotoxicity via the genome-wide synthetic genetic array (SGA) [3] and here we use them as metabolic engineering targets to evaluate their potentiality on recombinant protein production in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In order to investigate the mechanisms linking the genetic modifications to the improved recombinant protein production, we perform systems biology approaches (transcriptomics and proteomics) on the resulting strain and intermediate strains. The RNAseq data are preprocessed by the nf-core/RNAseq pipeline and analyzed using the Platform for Integrative Analysis of Omics (PIANO) package [4] . The quantitative proteome is analyzed on an Orbitrap Fusion Lumos mass spectrometer interfaced with an Easy-nLC1200 liquid chromatography (LC) system. LC-MS data files are processed by Proteome Discoverer version 2.4 with Mascot 2.5.1 as a database search engine. The original data presented in this work can be found in the research paper titled "Suppressors of Amyloid-beta Toxicity Improve Recombinant Protein Produc-tion in yeast by Reducing Oxidative Stress and Tuning Cellu-lar Metabolism", by Chen et al. [5] . (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Inc.
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| 8. |
- Chen, Xin, 1980, et al.
(author)
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FMN reduces Amyloid-beta toxicity in yeast by regulating redox status and cellular metabolism
- 2020
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In: Nature Communications. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2041-1723. ; 11:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Alzheimer's disease (AD) is defined by progressive neurodegeneration, with oligomerization and aggregation of amyloid-beta peptides (A beta) playing a pivotal role in its pathogenesis. In recent years, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been successfully used to clarify the roles of different human proteins involved in neurodegeneration. Here, we report a genome-wide synthetic genetic interaction array to identify toxicity modifiers of A beta 42, using yeast as the model organism. We find that FMN1, the gene encoding riboflavin kinase, and its metabolic product flavin mononucleotide (FMN) reduce A beta 42 toxicity. Classic experimental analyses combined with RNAseq show the effects of FMN supplementation to include reducing misfolded protein load, altering cellular metabolism, increasing NADH/(NADH+NAD(+)) and NADPH/(NADPH+NADP(+)) ratios and increasing resistance to oxidative stress. Additionally, FMN supplementation modifies Htt103QP toxicity and alpha-synuclein toxicity in the humanized yeast. Our findings offer insights for reducing cytotoxicity of A beta 42, and potentially other misfolded proteins, via FMN-dependent cellular pathways.Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a model organism to study proteins involved in neurodegeneration. Here, the authors performed a yeast genome-wide synthetic genetic interaction array (SGA) to screen for toxicity modifiers of A beta 42 and identify riboflavin kinase and its metabolic product flavin mononucleotide as modulators that alleviate cellular A beta 42 toxicity, which is supported by further experimental analyses.
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| 9. |
- Chen, Xin, 1980, et al.
(author)
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Suppressors of amyloid-β toxicity improve recombinant protein production in yeast by reducing oxidative stress and tuning cellular metabolism
- 2022
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In: Metabolic Engineering. - : Elsevier BV. - 1096-7176 .- 1096-7184. ; 72, s. 311-324
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High-level production of recombinant proteins in industrial microorganisms is often limited by the formation of misfolded proteins or protein aggregates, which consequently induce cellular stress responses. We hypothesized that in a yeast Alzheimer's disease (AD) model overexpression of amyloid-β peptides (Aβ42), one of the main peptides relevant for AD pathologies, induces similar phenotypes of cellular stress. Using this humanized AD model, we previously identified suppressors of Aβ42 cytotoxicity. Here we hypothesize that these suppressors could be used as metabolic engineering targets to alleviate cellular stress and improve recombinant protein production in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Forty-six candidate genes were individually deleted and twenty were individually overexpressed. The positive targets that increased recombinant α-amylase production were further combined leading to an 18.7-fold increased recombinant protein production. These target genes are involved in multiple cellular networks including RNA processing, transcription, ER-mitochondrial complex, and protein unfolding. By using transcriptomics and proteomics analyses, combined with reverse metabolic engineering, we showed that reduced oxidative stress, increased membrane lipid biosynthesis and repressed arginine and sulfur amino acid biosynthesis are significant pathways for increased recombinant protein production. Our findings provide new insights towards developing synthetic yeast cell factories for biosynthesis of valuable proteins.
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| 10. |
- Dabirian, Yasaman, 1992, et al.
(author)
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Expanding the Dynamic Range of a Transcription Factor-Based Biosensor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- 2019
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In: ACS Synthetic Biology. - : American Chemical Society (ACS). - 2161-5063. ; 8:9, s. 1968-1975
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Metabolite biosensors are useful tools for high-throughput screening approaches and pathway regulation approaches. An important feature of biosensors is the dynamic range. To expand the maximum dynamic range of a transcription factor-based biosensor in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, using the fapO/FapR system from Bacillus subtilis as an example case, five native promoters, including constitutive and glucose-regulated ones, were modified. By evaluating different binding site (BS) positions in the core promoters, we identified locations that resulted in a high maximum dynamic range with low expression under repressed conditions. We further identified BS positions in the upstream element region of the TEF1 promoter that did not influence the native promoter strength but resulted in repression in the presence of a chimeric repressor consisting of FapR and the yeast repressor Mig1. These modified promoters with broad dynamic ranges will provide useful information for the engineering of future biosensors and their use in complex genetic circuits.
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| 11. |
- Mao, Jiwei, 1990, et al.
(author)
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Fine-tuning of p-coumaric acid synthesis to increase (2S)-naringenin production in yeast
- 2023
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In: Metabolic Engineering. - 1096-7176 .- 1096-7184. ; 79, s. 192-202
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- (2S)-Naringenin is a key precursor for biosynthesis of various high-value flavonoids and possesses a variety of nutritional and pharmaceutical properties on human health. Systematic optimization approaches have been employed to improve (2S)-naringenin production in different microbial hosts. However, very few studies have focused on the spatiotemporal distribution of (2S)-naringenin and the related pathway intermediate p-coumaric acid, which is an important factor for efficient production. Here, we first optimized the (2S)-naringenin biosynthetic pathway by alleviating the bottleneck downstream of p-coumaric acid and increasing malonyl-CoA supply, which improved (2S)-naringenin production but significant accumulation of p-coumaric acid still existed extracellularly. We thus established a dual dynamic control system through combining a malonyl-CoA biosensor regulator and an RNAi strategy, to autonomously control the synthesis of p-coumaric acid with the supply of malonyl-CoA. Furthermore, screening potential transporters led to identification of Pdr12 for improved (2S)-naringenin production and reduced accumulation of p-coumaric acid. Finally, a titer of 2.05 g/L (2S)-naringenin with negligible accumulation of p-coumaric acid was achieved in a fed batch fermentation. Our work highlights the importance of systematic control of pathway intermediates for efficient microbial production of plant natural products.
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| 12. |
- Wang, Yanyan, 1989, et al.
(author)
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CRISPR/Cas9-mediated point mutations improve alpha-amylase secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae
- 2022
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In: FEMS Yeast Research. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1567-1356 .- 1567-1364. ; 22:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The rapid expansion of the application of pharmaceutical proteins and industrial enzymes requires robust microbial workhorses for high protein production. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an attractive cell factory due to its ability to perform eukaryotic post-translational modifications and to secrete proteins. Many strategies have been used to engineer yeast platform strains for higher protein secretion capacity. Herein, we investigated a line of strains that have previously been selected after UV random mutagenesis for improved alpha-amylase secretion. A total of 42 amino acid altering point mutations identified in this strain line were reintroduced into the parental strain AAC to study their individual effects on protein secretion. These point mutations included missense mutations (amino acid substitution), nonsense mutations (stop codon generation), and frameshift mutations. For comparison, single gene deletions for the corresponding target genes were also performed in this study. A total of 11 point mutations and seven gene deletions were found to effectively improve alpha-amylase secretion. These targets were involved in several bioprocesses, including cellular stresses, protein degradation, transportation, mRNA processing and export, DNA replication, and repair, which indicates that the improved protein secretion capacity in the evolved strains is the result of the interaction of multiple intracellular processes. Our findings will contribute to the construction of novel cell factories for recombinant protein secretion. Systematic characterization of point mutations from evolved strains using CRISPR/Cas9 technology revealed a set of gene alterations that improved recombinant protein secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.
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| 13. |
- Wang, Yanyan, 1989, et al.
(author)
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Expression of antibody fragments in Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains evolved for enhanced protein secretion
- 2021
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In: Microbial Cell Factories. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1475-2859. ; 20:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Monoclonal antibodies, antibody fragments and fusion proteins derived thereof have revolutionized the practice of medicine. Major challenges faced by the biopharmaceutical industry are however high production costs, long processing times and low productivities associated with their production in mammalian cell lines. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a well-characterized eukaryotic cell factory possessing the capacity of posttranslational modifications, has been industrially exploited as a secretion host for production of a range of products, including pharmaceuticals. However, due to the incompatible surface glycosylation, few antibody molecules have been functionally expressed in S. cerevisiae. Here, three non-glycosylated antibody fragments from human and the Camelidae family were chosen for expression in a S. cerevisiae strain (HA) previously evolved for high α-amylase secretion. These included the Fab fragment Ranibizumab (Ran), the scFv peptide Pexelizumab (Pex), and a nanobody consisting of a single V-type domain (Nan). Both secretion and biological activities of the antibody fragments were confirmed. In addition, the secretion level of each protein was compared in the wild type (LA) and two evolved strains (HA and MA) with different secretory capacities. We found that the secretion of Ran and Nan was positively correlated with the strains’ secretory capacity, while Pex was most efficiently secreted in the parental strain. To investigate the mechanisms for different secretion abilities in these selected yeast strains for the different antibody fragments, RNA-seq analysis was performed. The results showed that several bioprocesses were significantly enriched for differentially expressed genes when comparing the enriched terms between HA.Nan vs. LA.Nan and HA.Pex vs. LA.Pex, including amino acid metabolism, protein synthesis, cell cycle and others, which indicates that there are unique physiological needs for each antibody fragment secretion.
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