Hyun Min Koo

Improved galactose fermentation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae through inverse metabolic engineering.

Although Saccharomyces cerevisiae is capable of fermenting galactose into ethanol, ethanol yield and productivity from galactose are significantly lower than those from glucose. An inverse metabolic engineering approach was undertaken to improve ethanol yield and productivity from galactose in S. cerevisiae. A genome‐wide perturbation library was introduced into S. cerevisiae, and then fast galactose‐fermenting transformants were screened using three different enrichment methods. The characterization of genetic perturbations in the isolated transformants revealed three target genes whose overexpression elicited enhanced galactose utilization. One confirmatory (SEC53 coding for phosphomannomutase) and two novel targets (SNR84 coding for a small nuclear RNA and a truncated form of TUP1 coding for a general repressor of transcription) were identified as overexpression targets that potentially improve galactose fermentation. Beneficial effects of overexpression of SEC53 may be similar to the mechanisms exerted by overexpression of PGM2 coding for phosphoglucomutase. While the mechanism is largely unknown, overexpression of SNR84, improved both growth and ethanol production from galactose. The most remarkable improvement of galactose fermentation was achieved by overexpression of the truncated TUP1 (tTUP1) gene, resulting in unrivalled galactose fermentation capability, that is 250% higher in both galactose consumption rate and ethanol productivity compared to the control strain. Moreover, the overexpression of tTUP1 significantly shortened lag periods that occurs when substrate is changed from glucose to galactose. Based on these results we proposed a hypothesis that the mutant Tup1 without C‐terminal repression domain might bring in earlier and higher expression of GAL genes through partial alleviation of glucose repression. mRNA levels of GAL genes (GAL1, GAL4, and GAL80) indeed increased upon overexpression of tTUP. The results presented in this study illustrate that alteration of global regulatory networks through overexpression of the identified targets (SNR84 and tTUP1) is as effective as overexpression of a rate limiting metabolic gene (PGM2) in the galactose assimilation pathway for efficient galactose fermentation in S. cerevisiae. In addition, these results will be industrially useful in the biofuels area as galactose is one of the abundant sugars in marine plant biomass such as red seaweed as well as cheese whey and molasses. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011; 108:621–631.

Identification of gene targets eliciting improved alcohol tolerance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae through inverse metabolic engineering.

The economic production of biofuels from renewable biomass using Saccharomyces cerevisiae requires tolerance to high concentrations of sugar and alcohol. Here we applied an inverse metabolic engineering approach to identify endogenous gene targets conferring improved alcohol tolerance in S. cerevisiae. After transformation with a S. cerevisiae genomic library, enrichment of the transformants exhibiting improved tolerance was performed by serial subculture in the presence of iso-butanol (1%). Through sequence analysis of the isolated plasmids from the selected transformants, four endogenous S. cerevisiae genes were identified as overexpression targets eliciting improved tolerance to both iso-butanol and ethanol. Overexpression of INO1, DOG1, HAL1 or a truncated form of MSN2 resulted in remarkably increased tolerance to high concentrations of iso-butanol and ethanol. Overexpression of INO1 elicited the highest ethanol tolerance, resulting in higher titers and volumetric productivities in the fermentation experiments performed with high glucose concentrations. In addition, the INO1-overexpressing strain showed a threefold increase in the specific growth rate as compared to that of the control strain under conditions of high levels of glucose (10%) and ethanol (5%). Although alcohol tolerance in yeast is a complex trait affected by simultaneous interactions of many genes, our results using a genomic library reveal potential target genes for better understanding and possible engineering of metabolic pathways underlying alcohol tolerance phenotypes.

Expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase 6 reduces inhibitory effect of furan derivatives on cell growth and ethanol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Yeast dehydrogenases and reductases were overexpressed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae D452-2 to detoxify 2-furaldehyde (furfural) and 5-hydroxymethyl furaldehyde (HMF), two potent toxic chemicals present in acid-hydrolyzed cellulosic biomass, and hence improve cell growth and ethanol production. Among those enzymes, aldehyde dehydrogenase 6 (ALD6) played the dual roles of direct oxidation of furan derivatives and supply of NADPH cofactor to their reduction reactions. Batch fermentation of S. cerevisiae D452-2/pH-ALD6 in the presence of 2g/L furfural and 0.5 g/L HMF resulted in 20-30% increases in specific growth rate, ethanol concentration and ethanol productivity, compared with those of the wild type strain. It was proposed that overexpression of ALD6 could recover the yeast cell metabolism and hence increase ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass containing furan-derived inhibitors.

Genome sequence of the thermotolerant yeast Kluyveromyces marxianus var. marxianus KCTC 17555.

ABSTRACT Kluyveromyces marxianus is a thermotolerant yeast that has been explored for potential use in biotechnological applications, such as production of biofuels, single-cell proteins, enzymes, and other heterologous proteins. Here, we present the high-quality draft of the 10.9-Mb genome of K. marxianus var. marxianus KCTC 17555 (= CBS 6556 = ATCC 26548).

A Biosynthetic Pathway for Hexanoic Acid Production in Kluyveromyces marxianus

Hexanoic acid can be used for diverse industrial applications and is a precursor for fine chemistry. Although some natural microorganisms have been screened and evolved to produce hexanoic acid, the construction of an engineered biosynthetic pathway for producing hexanoic acid in yeast has not been reported. Here we constructed hexanoic acid pathways in Kluyveromyces marxianus by integrating 5 combinations of seven genes (AtoB, BktB, Crt, Hbd, MCT1, Ter, and TES1), by which random chromosomal sites of the strain are overwritten by the new genes from bacteria and yeast. One recombinant strain, H4A, which contained AtoB, BktB, Crt, Hbd, and Ter, produced 154mg/L of hexanoic acid from galactose as the sole substrate. However, the hexanoic acid produced by the H4A strain was re-assimilated during the fermentation due to the reverse activity of AtoB, which condenses two acetyl-CoAs into a single acetoacetyl-CoA. This product instability could be overcome by the replacement of AtoB with a malonyl CoA-acyl carrier protein transacylase (MCT1) from Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our results suggest that Mct1 provides a slow but stable acetyl-CoA chain elongation pathway, whereas the AtoB-mediated route is fast but unstable. In conclusion, hexanoic acid was produced for the first time in yeast by the construction of chain elongation pathways comprising 5-7 genes in K. marxianus.

The Role of Charge Balance and Excited State Levels on Device Performance of Exciplex-based Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diodes

The design of novel exciplex-forming co-host materials provides new opportunities to achieve high device performance of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), including high efficiency, low driving voltage and low efficiency roll-off. Here, we report a comprehensive study of exciplex-forming co-host system in OLEDs including the change of co-host materials, mixing composition of exciplex in the device to improve the performance. We investigate various exciplex systems using 5-(3–4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl-3,9-diphenyl-9H-carbazole, 5-(3–4,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-triazin-2-yl)phenyl)-9-phenyl-9H-3,9′-bicarbazole, and 2-(3-(6,9-diphenyl-9H-carbazol-4-yl)phenyl)-4-phenylbenzo[4,5]thieno[3,2-d]pyrimidine, as electron transporting (ET: electron acceptor) hosts and 9,9′-dipenyl-9H, 9′H-3,3′-bicarbazole and 9-([1,1′-biphenyl]-4-yl)-9′-phenyl-9H,9′H-3,3′-bicarbazole as hole transporting (HT: electron donor) hosts. As a result, a very high current efficiency of 105.1 cd/A at 103 cd/m2 and an extremely long device lifetime of 739 hrs (t95: time after 5% decrease of luminance) are achieved which is one of the best performance in OLEDs. Systematic approach, controlling mixing ratio of HT to ET host materials is suggested to select the component of two host system using energy band matching and charge balance optimization method. Furthermore, our analysis on exciton stability also reveal that lifetime of OLEDs have close relationship with two parameters; singlet energy level difference of HT and ET host and difference of singlet and triplet energy level in exciplex.

Enhancing the Kinetic Stability and Lifetime of Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes based on Bipolar Hosts by using Spiroconjugation

We examined how to enhance the lifetime of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) based on bipolar host molecules ET-HT, where ET and HT refer to electron- and hole-transporting units, respectively, by analyzing their thermodynamic and kinetic stabilities. Our DFT calculations reveal that the thermodynamic stability of ET-HT is determined by that of its anion, which is difficult to improve by chemical modifications of ET and HT. The kinetic stability of ET-HT can be enhanced by the spiroconjugation between ET and HT, which occurs when their π-frameworks are extended and have an orthogonal arrangement. Green OLED devices were fabricated by using ET-HTs with and without spiroconjugation, to find that the device with spiroconjugation has a lifetime that is approximately 6 times longer than the one without spiroconjugation.