title: Production of lycopene in the non-carotenoid-producing yeast Yarrowia lipolytica.
abstract: The codon-optimized genes crtB and crtI of Pantoea ananatis were expressed in Yarrowia lipolytica under the control of the TEF1 promoter of Y. lipolytica. Additionally, the rate-limiting genes for isoprenoid biosynthesis in Y. lipolytica, GGS1 and HMG1, were overexpressed to increase the production of lycopene. All of the genes were also expressed in a Y. lipolytica strain with POX1 to POX6 and GUT2 deleted, which led to an increase in the size of lipid bodies and a further increase in lycopene production. Lycopene is located mainly within lipid bodies, and increased lipid body formation leads to an increase in the lycopene storage capacity of Y. lipolytica. Growth-limiting conditions increase the specific lycopene content. Finally, a yield of 16 mg g(-1) (dry cell weight) was reached in fed-batch cultures, which is the highest value reported so far for a eukaryotic host.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Matthäus
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ketelhot
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gatter
authors.forename: Gerold
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Barth
mesh_terms: D002338:Carotenoids / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000378:metabolism; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D017353:Gene Deletion; D015870:Gene Expression; D000077276:Lycopene; D060847:Metabolic Engineering; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020636:Pantoea / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D025062:Yarrowia / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002338:Carotenoids; D000077276:Lycopene