Alleviating Redox Imbalance Enhances 7-Dehydrocholesterol Production in Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

PLoS One. 2015 Jun 22;10(6):e0130840. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0130840. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Maintaining redox balance is critical for the production of heterologous secondary metabolites, whereas on various occasions the native cofactor balance does not match the needs in engineered microorganisms. In this study, 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC, a crucial precursor of vitamin D3) biosynthesis pathway was constructed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae BY4742 with endogenous ergosterol synthesis pathway blocked by knocking out the erg5 gene (encoding C-22 desaturase). The deletion of erg5 led to redox imbalance with higher ratio of cytosolic free NADH/NAD+ and more glycerol and ethanol accumulation. To alleviate the redox imbalance, a water-forming NADH oxidase (NOX) and an alternative oxidase (AOX1) were employed in our system based on cofactor regeneration strategy. Consequently, the production of 7-dehydrocholesterol was increased by 74.4% in shake flask culture. In the meanwhile, the ratio of free NADH/NAD+ and the concentration of glycerol and ethanol were reduced by 78.0%, 50.7% and 7.9% respectively. In a 5-L bioreactor, the optimal production of 7-DHC reached 44.49(±9.63) mg/L. This study provides a reference to increase the production of some desired compounds that are restricted by redox imbalance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosynthetic Pathways / physiology*
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / genetics
  • DNA Primers / genetics
  • Dehydrocholesterols / metabolism*
  • Ergosterol / biosynthesis
  • Fermentation
  • Gene Knockout Techniques
  • Genetic Engineering / methods*
  • Industrial Microbiology / methods*
  • Organisms, Genetically Modified / metabolism*
  • Oxidation-Reduction
  • Plasmids / genetics
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae / metabolism*
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins / genetics

Substances

  • DNA Primers
  • Dehydrocholesterols
  • Saccharomyces cerevisiae Proteins
  • Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System
  • 7-dehydrocholesterol
  • ERG5 protein, S cerevisiae
  • Ergosterol

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Major Program: 21390203 and 21206114) and the Ministry of Science and Technology of China ("863"Program: 2012AA02A701).