title: Enhancing fatty acid ethyl ester production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through metabolic engineering and medium optimization.
abstract: Biodiesels in the form of fatty acyl ethyl esters (FAEEs) are a promising next generation biofuel due to their chemical properties and compatibility with existing infrastructure. It has recently been shown that expression of a bacterial acyl-transferase in the established industrial workhorse Saccharomyces cerevisiae can lead to production of FAEEs by condensation of fatty acyl-CoAs and ethanol. In contrast to recent strategies to produce FAEEs in S. cerevisiae through manipulation of de novo fatty acid biosynthesis or a series of arduous genetic manipulations, we introduced a novel genetic background, which is comparable in titer to previous reports with a fraction of the genetic disruption by aiming at increasing the fatty acyl-CoA pools. In addition, we combined metabolic engineering with modification of culture conditions to produce a maximum titer of over 25 mg/L FAEEs, a 40% improvement over previous reports and a 17-fold improvement over our initial characterizations. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2014;111: 2200-2208. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Graduate Education, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.
authors.forename: R Adam
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Cong T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Trinh
mesh_terms: D056804:Biofuels; D003470:Culture Media / Q000737:chemistry*; D004952:Esters / Q000378:metabolism*; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D012441:Saccharomyces cerevisiae / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D056804:Biofuels; D003470:Culture Media; D004952:Esters; D005227:Fatty Acids
keywords: Saccharomyces cerevisiae; biodiesel; fatty acid ethyl ester; metabolic engineering; nitrogen limitation