System and method for increased alcohol tolerance and production in yeast
AssigneesThe Trustees of Princeton University, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Kyoto University
InventorsJosé L. Avalos, Sarah K. Hammer, Kouichi Kuroda, Gerald R. Fink, Gregory Stephanopoulos
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Abstract
A method for producing metabolites that are heavy alcohols, and particularly branched-chain alcohols is provided, involving contacting a suitable substrate with recombinant microorganisms. The microorganisms contain at least one deletion, disruptions, or mutations from the GLN gene family, VPS gene family, GNP gene family, AVT gene family, GCN gene family, or YDR391C, and combinations thereof, and overproduce the heavy alcohol as compared to a wild-type yeast strain.
Claims5
A method for producing at least one heavy alcohol, comprising:
- providing a heavy alcohol production system comprising:
- an engineered yeast strain having a biosynthetic pathway configured to produce at least one heavy alcohol, wherein the engineered yeast strain has a disruption of GLN3, VPS55, and/or AVT3 as compared to a corresponding wild-type yeast strain,
- wherein the engineered yeast strain has an increase in the production of the at least one heavy alcohol over the corresponding wild-type yeast strain, as measured using titers of the at least one heavy alcohol;
- forming a cell culture by fermenting the engineered yeast strain in conditions that enable the expression of the at least one heavy alcohol;
- and
- allowing the engineered yeast strain to produce a larger quantity of the at least one alcohol than can be produced by the corresponding wild-type strain,
- wherein the at least one heavy alcohol includes 2-butanol, tert-Butanol, 1-Pentanol, and 2-Methyl-1-butanol, isobutanol, and/or isopentanol for GLN3 disruption strains, 2-phenylethanol for VPS55 disruption strains, and 2-methyl-1-butanol for AVT3 disruption strains.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.