Glucose/Xylose Co-Fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae Increases the Production of Acetyl-CoA Derived n-Butanol From Lignocellulosic Biomass

Yeon-Jung Lee; Phuong Hoang Nguyen Tran; Ja Kyong Ko; Gyeongtaek Gong; Youngsoon Um; Sung Ok Han; Sun-Mi Lee

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2022.826787

Glucose/Xylose Co-Fermenting Saccharomyces cerevisiae Increases the Production of Acetyl-CoA Derived n-Butanol From Lignocellulosic Biomass

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Feb 16:10:826787. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2022.826787. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yeon-Jung Lee^{1

2}, Phuong Hoang Nguyen Tran^{1

3}, Ja Kyong Ko^{1

3}, Gyeongtaek Gong¹, Youngsoon Um^{1

3

4}, Sung Ok Han², Sun-Mi Lee^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Clean Energy Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST), Seoul, South Korea.
² Department of Biotechnology, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
³ Division of Energy and Environment Technology, University of Science and Technology (UST), Daejeon, South Korea.
⁴ Green School, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.

Abstract

Efficient xylose catabolism in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae enables more economical lignocellulosic biorefinery with improved production yields per unit of biomass. Yet, the product profile of glucose/xylose co-fermenting S. cerevisiae is mainly limited to bioethanol and a few other chemicals. Here, we introduced an n-butanol-biosynthesis pathway into a glucose/xylose co-fermenting S. cerevisiae strain (XUSEA) to evaluate its potential on the production of acetyl-CoA derived products. Higher n-butanol production of glucose/xylose co-fermenting strain was explained by the transcriptomic landscape, which revealed strongly increased acetyl-CoA and NADPH pools when compared to a glucose fermenting wild-type strain. The acetate supplementation expected to support acetyl-CoA pool further increased n-butanol production, which was also validated during the fermentation of lignocellulosic hydrolysates containing acetate. Our findings imply the feasibility of lignocellulosic biorefinery for producing fuels and chemicals derived from a key intermediate of acetyl-CoA through glucose/xylose co-fermentation.

Keywords: Saccharomyces cerevisiae; acetate; acetyl-CoA; glucose/xylose co-fermentation; lignocellulosic biomass; n-butanol.