Due to the fact that yeast genome is well characterized and well conserved, synthetic biologists have been engineering many yeast strains into “micro-factories” for the production of various products, including biofuels, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. However, how to improve the efficiency of converting readily available nutrients into final value-added products in these “micro-factories” remains to be the challenge for researchers. One recently published study on Nature Communications suggested an novel approaching to solving this problem.
The researchers optimized existing yeast metabolic pathways that were originally triggered by galactose, the favorite nutrient for yeast, to be responsive to xylose, a sugar derivative from the indigestible parts of plants. By doing so, downstream pathways related to cell growth, cell division, as well as stress response and many others will continue to be activated despite the change of nutrient. Thus, the engineered yeast strain remains fast growth rate on xylose.
This study proposed a novel paradigm for incorporating non-native nutrient catabolism into existing native metabolic pathways for sustained cell growth rate. As the current fuel source used for biofuel production are mostly crops, which poses a negative impact on food production, using alternative indigestible nutrients can be the alternative approach for biofuel production without competing with the agriculture production system.
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