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The use of insect sex pheromones is an alternative technology for pest control in agriculture and forestry, which, in contrast to insecticides, does not have adverse effects on human health or environment and is efficient also against insecticide-resistant insect populations.1,2 Due to the high cost of chemically synthesized pheromones, mating disruption applications are currently primarily targeting higher value crops, such as fruits.3 Here we demonstrate a biotechnological method for the production of pheromones of economically important moth pests using engineered yeast cell factories. Biosynthetic pathways towards several pheromones or their precursors were reconstructed in the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, which was further metabolically engineered for improved pheromone biosynthesis by decreasing fatty alcohol degradation and downregulating storage lipid accumulation. The sex pheromone of the cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera was produced by oxidation of fermented fatty alcohols into corresponding aldehydes. The resulting pheromone was just as efficient and specific for trapping of H. armigera male moths in cotton fields in Greece as a synthetic pheromone mixture. We further demonstrated the production of the main pheromone component of the fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda. Our work describes a biotech platform for the production of commercially relevant titres of moth pheromones for pest control by yeast fermentation.Significance statementAgriculture largely relies on insecticides and genetically modified crops for pest control, however alternative solutions are required due to emerging resistance, toxicity and regulatory issues, and consumer preferences. Mating disruption with sex pheromones that act by preventing insect reproduction is considered the most promising and scalable alternative to insecticides. This method is highly efficient and safe for human health and environment. The likelihood of insect resistance development is very low and can be handled by adjusting the pheromone composition. The high cost of chemically synthesized pheromones is the major barrier for the wider adoption of pheromones. A novel method based on yeast fermentation enables the production of insect sex pheromones as a lower cost from renewable feedstocks.

Mating disruption with insect sex pheromones is an attractive and environmentally friendly technique for pest management. Several Lepidoptera sex pheromones have been produced in yeast, where biosynthesis could be accomplished by the expression of fatty acyl-CoA desaturases and fatty acyl-CoA reductases. In this study, we aimed to develop yeast Yarrowia lipolytica cell factories for producing Lepidoptera pheromones which biosynthesis additionally requires β-oxidation, such as (Z)-7-dodecenol (Z7-12:OH), (Z)-9-dodecenol (Z9-12:OH), and (Z)-7-tetradecenol (Z7-14:OH). We expressed fatty acyl-CoA desaturases from Drosophila melanogaster (Dmd9) or Lobesia botrana (Lbo_PPTQ) and fatty acyl-CoA reductase from Helicoverpa armigera (HarFAR) in combinations with 11 peroxisomal oxidases of different origins. Yeast cultivations were performed with supplementation of methyl myristate (14:Me). The oxidase Lbo_31670 from L. botrana provided the highest titers of (Z)-7-dodecenoate, (Z)-9-dodecenoate, and (Z)-7-tetradecenoate. However, no chain-shortened fatty alcohols were produced. The mutation of fatty acid synthase (Fas2pI1220F) to increase myristate production did not lead to targeted fatty alcohol production. The problem was solved by directing the reductase into peroxisomes, where the strain with Dmd9 produced 0.10 ± 0.02 mg/l of Z7-12:OH and 0.48 ± 0.03 mg/l of Z7-14:OH, while the strain with Lbo_PPTQ produced 0.21 ± 0.03 mg/l of Z9-12:OH and 0.40 ± 0.07 mg/l of Z7-14:OH. In summary, the engineering of β-oxidation in Y. lipolytica allowed expanding the portfolio of microbially produced insect sex pheromones.

In order to unlock the full potential of Yarrowia lipolytica, as model organism and production host, simple and reliable tools for genome engineering are essential. In this chapter, the practical details of working with the EasyCloneYALI Toolbox are described.Highlights of the EasyCloneYALI Toolbox are high genome editing efficiencies, multiplexed Cas9-mediated knockouts, targeted genomic integrations into characterized intergenic loci, as well as streamlined and convenient cloning for both marker-based and marker-free integrative expression vectors.

In order to unlock the full potential of Yarrowia lipolytica, as model organism and production host, simple and reliable tools for genome engineering are essential. In this chapter, the practical details of working with the EasyCloneYALI Toolbox are described.Highlights of the EasyCloneYALI Toolbox are high genome editing efficiencies, multiplexed Cas9-mediated knockouts, targeted genomic integrations into characterized intergenic loci, as well as streamlined and convenient cloning for both marker-based and marker-free integrative expression vectors.

Frontiers in genetics 11, 637738 (2021). doi:10.3389/fgene.2020.637738, Published by Frontiers Media, Lausanne

Astaxanthin is a red-colored carotenoid, used as food and feed additive. Astaxanthin is mainly produced by chemical synthesis, however, the process is expensive and synthetic astaxanthin is not approved for human consumption. In this study, we engineered the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica for de novo production of astaxanthin by fermentation. First, we screened 12 different Y. lipolytica isolates for β-carotene production by introducing two genes for β-carotene biosynthesis: bi-functional phytoene synthase/lycopene cyclase ( crtYB ) and phytoene desaturase ( crtI ) from the red yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous . The best strain produced 31.1 ± 0.5 mg/L β-carotene. Next, we optimized the activities of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase ( HMG1 ) and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase ( GGS1/crtE ) in the best producing strain and obtained 453.9 ± 20.2 mg/L β-carotene. Additional downregulation of the competing squalene synthase SQS1 increased the β-carotene titer to 797.1 ± 57.2 mg/L. Then we introduced β-carotene ketolase ( crtW ) from Paracoccus sp. N81106 and hydroxylase ( crtZ ) from Pantoea ananatis to convert β-carotene into astaxanthin. The constructed strain accumulated 10.4 ± 0.5 mg/L of astaxanthin but also accumulated astaxanthin biosynthesis intermediates, 5.7 ± 0.5 mg/L canthaxanthin, and 35.3 ± 1.8 mg/L echinenone. Finally, we optimized the copy numbers of crtZ and crtW to obtain 3.5 mg/g DCW (54.6 mg/L) of astaxanthin in a microtiter plate cultivation. Our study for the first time reports engineering of Y. lipolytica for the production of astaxanthin. The high astaxanthin content and titer obtained even in a small-scale cultivation demonstrates a strong potential for Y. lipolytica -based fermentation process for astaxanthin production.

The European corn borer (ECB) Ostrinia nubilalis is a widespread pest of cereals, particularly maize. Mating disruption with the sex pheromone is a potentially attractive method for managing this pest; however, chemical synthesis of pheromones requires expensive starting materials and catalysts and generates hazardous waste. The goal of this study was to develop a biotechnological method for the production of ECB sex pheromone. Our approach was to engineer the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce (Z)-11-tetradecenol (Z11-14:OH), which can then be chemically acetylated to (Z)-11-tetradecenyl acetate (Z11-14:OAc), the main pheromone component of the Z-race of O. nubilalis. First, a C14 platform strain with increased biosynthesis of myristoyl-CoA was obtained by introducing a point mutation into the α-subunit of fatty acid synthase, replacing isoleucine 1220 with phenylalanine (Fas2pI1220F). The intracellular accumulation of myristic acid increased 8.4-fold. Next, fatty acyl-CoA desaturases (FAD) and fatty acyl-CoA reductases (FAR) from nine different species of Lepidoptera were screened in the C14 platform strain, individually and in combinations. A titer of 29.2 ± 1.6 mg L-1 Z11-14:OH was reached in small-scale cultivation with an optimal combination of a FAD (Lbo_PPTQ) from Lobesia botrana and FAR (HarFAR) from Helicoverpa armigera. When the second copies of FAD and FAR genes were introduced, the titer improved 2.1-fold. The native FAS1 gene's overexpression led to a further 1.5-fold titer increase, reaching 93.9 ± 11.7 mg L-1 in small-scale cultivation. When the same engineered strain was cultivated in controlled 1 L bioreactors in fed-batch mode, 188.1 ± 13.4 mg L-1 of Z11-14:OH was obtained. Fatty alcohols were extracted from the biomass and chemically acetylated to obtain Z11-14:OAc. Electroantennogram experiments showed that males of the Z-race of O. nubilalis were responsive to biologically-derived pheromone blend. Behavioral bioassays in a wind tunnel revealed attraction of male O. nubilalis, although full precopulatory behavior was observed less often than for the chemically synthesized pheromone blend. The study paves the way for the production of ECB pheromone by fermentation.

Traditional oleochemical industry chemically processes animal fats and plant oils to produce detergents, lubricants, biodiesel, plastics, coatings, and other products. Biotechnology offers an alternative process, where the same oleochemicals can be produced from abundant biomass feedstocks using microbial catalysis. This review summarizes the recent advances in the engineering of microbial metabolism for production of fatty acid-derived products. We highlight the efforts in engineering the central carbon metabolism, redox metabolism, controlling the chain length of the products, and obtaining metabolites with different functionalities. The prospects of commercializing microbial oleochemicals are also discussed.

Astaxanthin is a red-colored carotenoid, used as food and feed additive. Astaxanthin is mainly produced by chemical synthesis, however, the process is expensive and synthetic astaxanthin is not approved for human consumption. In this study, we engineered the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica for de novo production of astaxanthin by fermentation. First, we screened 12 different Y. lipolytica isolates for β-carotene production by introducing two genes for β-carotene biosynthesis: bi-functional phytoene synthase/lycopene cyclase (crtYB) and phytoene desaturase (crtI) from the red yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous. The best strain produced 31.1 ± 0.5 mg/L β-carotene. Next, we optimized the activities of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase (HMG1) and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGS1/crtE) in the best producing strain and obtained 453.9 ± 20.2 mg/L β-carotene. Additional downregulation of the competing squalene synthase SQS1 increased the β-carotene titer to 797.1 ± 57.2 mg/L. Then we introduced β-carotene ketolase (crtW) from Paracoccus sp. N81106 and hydroxylase (crtZ) from Pantoea ananatis to convert β-carotene into astaxanthin. The constructed strain accumulated 10.4 ± 0.5 mg/L of astaxanthin but also accumulated astaxanthin biosynthesis intermediates, 5.7 ± 0.5 mg/L canthaxanthin, and 35.3 ± 1.8 mg/L echinenone. Finally, we optimized the copy numbers of crtZ and crtW to obtain 3.5 mg/g DCW (54.6 mg/L) of astaxanthin in a microtiter plate cultivation. Our study for the first time reports engineering of Y. lipolytica for the production of astaxanthin. The high astaxanthin content and titer obtained even in a small-scale cultivation demonstrates a strong potential for Y. lipolytica-based fermentation process for astaxanthin production.

The methods based on the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas) system have quickly gained popularity for genome editing and transcriptional regulation in many organisms, including yeast. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of CRISPR application for different yeast species: from basic principles and genetic design to applications., A comprehensive review on application of CRISPR technology in yeast.

Myxococcus xanthus is a Gram-negative deltaproteobacterium that has evolved the ability to differentiate into metabolically quiescent spores that are resistant to heat and desiccation. An essential feature of the differentiation processes is the assembly of a rigid, cell wall-like spore coat on the surface of the outer membrane. In this study, we characterize the spore coat composition and describe the machinery necessary for secretion of spore coat material and its subsequent assembly into a stress-bearing matrix. Chemical analyses of isolated spore coat material indicate that the spore coat consists primarily of short 1-4- and 1-3-linked GalNAc polymers that lack significant glycosidic branching and may be connected by glycine peptides. We show that 1-4-linked glucose (Glc) is likely a minor component of the spore coat with the majority of the Glc arising from contamination with extracellular polysaccharides, O-antigen, or storage compounds. Neither of these structures is required for the formation of resistant spores. Our analyses indicate the GalNAc/Glc polymer and glycine are exported by the ExoA-I system, a Wzy-like polysaccharide synthesis and export machinery. Arrangement of the capsular-like polysaccharides into a rigid spore coat requires the NfsA-H proteins, members of which reside in either the cytoplasmic membrane (NfsD, -E, and -G) or outer membrane (NfsA, -B, and -C). The Nfs proteins function together to modulate the chain length of the surface polysaccharides, which is apparently necessary for their assembly into a stress-bearing matrix.

Myxococcus xanthus undergoes a starvation-induced multicellular developmental program during which cells partition into three known fates: (i) aggregation into fruiting bodies followed by differentiation into spores, (ii) lysis, or (iii) differentiation into nonaggregating persister-like cells, termed peripheral rods. As a first step to characterize cell fate segregation, we enumerated total, aggregating, and nonaggregating cells throughout the developmental program. We demonstrate that both cell lysis and cell aggregation begin with similar timing at approximately 24 h after induction of development. Examination of several known regulatory proteins in the separated aggregated and nonaggregated cell fractions revealed previously unknown heterogeneity in the accumulation patterns of proteins involved in type IV pilus (T4P)-mediated motility (PilC and PilA) and regulation of development (MrpC, FruA, and C-signal). As part of our characterization of the cell lysis fate, we set out to investigate the unorthodox MazF-MrpC toxin-antitoxin system which was previously proposed to induce programmed cell death (PCD). We demonstrate that deletion of mazF in two different wild-type M. xanthus laboratory strains does not significantly reduce developmental cell lysis, suggesting that MazF's role in promoting PCD is an adaption to the mutant background strain used previously.

Chlorobaculum (Cba.) tepidum is a green sulfur bacterium that oxidizes sulfide, elemental sulfur, and thiosulfate for photosynthetic growth. To gain insight into the sulfur metabolism, the proteome of Cba. tepidum cells sampled under different growth conditions has been quantified using a rapid gel-free, filter-aided sample preparation (FASP) protocol with an in-solution isotopic labeling strategy. Among the 2245 proteins predicted from the Cba. tepidum genome, approximately 970 proteins were detected in unlabeled samples, whereas approximately 630-640 proteins were detected in labeled samples comparing two different growth conditions. Wild-type cells growing on thiosulfate had an increased abundance of periplasmic cytochrome c-555 and proteins of the periplasmic thiosulfate-oxidizing SOX enzyme system when compared with cells growing on sulfide. A dsrM mutant of Cba. tepidum, which lacks the dissimilatory sulfite reductase DsrM protein and therefore is unable to oxidize sulfur globules to sulfite, was also investigated. When compared with wild type, the dsrM cells exhibited an increased abundance of DSR enzymes involved in the initial steps of sulfur globule oxidation (DsrABCL) and a decreased abundance of enzymes putatively involved in sulfite oxidation (Sat-AprAB-QmoABC). The results show that Cba. tepidum regulates the cellular levels of enzymes involved in sulfur metabolism and other electron-transferring processes in response to the availability of reduced sulfur compounds.

Green sulfur bacteria (GSB) oxidize sulfide and thiosulfate to sulfate, with extracellular globules of elemental sulfur as an intermediate. Here we investigated which genes are involved in the formation and consumption of these sulfur globules in the green sulfur bacterium Chlorobaculum tepidum. We show that sulfur globule oxidation is strictly dependent on the dissimilatory sulfite reductase (DSR) system. Deletion of dsrM/CT2244 or dsrT/CT2245, or the two dsrCABL clusters (CT0851–CT0854, CT2247–2250), abolished sulfur globule oxidation and prevented formation of sulfate from sulfide, whereas deletion of dsrU/CT2246 had no effect. The DSR system also seems to be involved in the formation of thiosulfate, because thiosulfate was released from wild-type cells during sulfide oxidation, but not from the dsr mutants. The dsr mutants incapable of complete substrate oxidation oxidized sulfide and thiosulfate about twice as fast as the wild-type, while having only slightly lower growth rates (70–80 % of wild-type). The increased oxidation rates seem to compensate for the incomplete substrate oxidation to satisfy the requirement for reducing equivalents during growth. A mutant in which two sulfide : quinone oxidoreductases (sqrD/CT0117 and sqrF/CT1087) were deleted exhibited a decreased sulfide oxidation rate (∼50 % of wild-type), yet formation and consumption of sulfur globules were not affected. The observation that mutants lacking the DSR system maintain efficient growth suggests that the DSR system is dispensable in environments with sufficiently high sulfide concentrations. Thus, the DSR system in GSB may have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer as a response to a need for enhanced substrate utilization in sulfide-limiting habitats.

Lactone flavors with fruity, milky, coconut, and other aromas are widely used in the food and fragrance industries. Lactones are produced by chemical synthesis or by biotransformation of plant-sourced hydroxy fatty acids. We established a novel method to produce flavor lactones from abundant non-hydroxylated fatty acids using yeast cell factories. Oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica was engineered to perform hydroxylation of fatty acids and chain-shortening via β-oxidation to preferentially twelve or ten carbons. The strains could produce γ-dodecalactone from oleic acid and δ-decalactone from linoleic acid. Through metabolic engineering, the titer was improved 4-fold, and the final strain produced 282 mg/L γ-dodecalactone in a fed-batch bioreactor. The study paves the way for the production of lactones by fermentation of abundant fatty feedstocks.

The oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is an emerging host for production of fatty acid-derived chemicals. To enable rapid iterative metabolic engineering of this yeast, there is a need for well-characterized genetic parts and convenient and reliable methods for their incorporation into yeast. Here, we present the EasyCloneYALI genetic toolbox, which allows streamlined strain construction with high genome editing efficiencies in Y. lipolytica via the CRISPR/Cas9 technology. The toolbox allows marker-free integration of gene expression vectors into characterized genome sites as well as marker-free deletion of genes with the help of CRISPR/Cas9. Genome editing efficiencies above 80% were achieved with transformation protocols using non-replicating DNA repair fragments (such as DNA oligos). Furthermore, the toolbox includes a set of integrative gene expression vectors with prototrophic markers conferring resistance to hygromycin and nourseothricin.