Fumaric acid production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by in silico aided metabolic engineering

PLoS One. 2012;7(12):e52086. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0052086. Epub 2012 Dec 26.

Abstract

Fumaric acid (FA) is a promising biomass-derived building-block chemical. Bio-based FA production from renewable feedstock is a promising and sustainable alternative to petroleum-based chemical synthesis. Here we report on FA production by direct fermentation using metabolically engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae with the aid of in silico analysis of a genome-scale metabolic model. First, FUM1 was selected as the target gene on the basis of extensive literature mining. Flux balance analysis (FBA) revealed that FUM1 deletion can lead to FA production and slightly lower growth of S. cerevisiae. The engineered S. cerevisiae strain obtained by deleting FUM1 can produce FA up to a concentration of 610±31 mg L(-1) without any apparent change in growth in fed-batch culture. FT-IR and (1)H and (13)C NMR spectra confirmed that FA was synthesized by the engineered S. cerevisiae strain. FBA identified pyruvate carboxylase as one of the factors limiting higher FA production. When the RoPYC gene was introduced, S. cerevisiae produced 1134±48 mg L(-1) FA. Furthermore, the final engineered S. cerevisiae strain was able to produce 1675±52 mg L(-1) FA in batch culture when the SFC1 gene encoding a succinate-fumarate transporter was introduced. These results demonstrate that the model shows great predictive capability for metabolic engineering. Moreover, FA production in S. cerevisiae can be efficiently developed with the aid of in silico metabolic engineering.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomass
  • Computer Simulation*
  • Fumarates / metabolism*
  • Gene Deletion
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Metabolic Engineering*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / growth & development
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / genetics
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / metabolism*
  • Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared

Substances

  • Fumarates
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
  • fumaric acid

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20836003), the National Outstanding Doctorate Paper Author Special Fund (No. 200962), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (NCET-10-0456), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and Doctor Candidate Foundation of Jiangnan University (JUDCF09015). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.