Laura Ruohonen

Tryptophan 272: an essential determinant of crystalline cellulose degradation by Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase Cel6A

Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolase Cel6A (formerly CBHII) has a tunnel shaped active site with four internal subsites for the glucose units. We have predicted an additional ring stacking interaction for a sixth glucose moiety with a tryptophan residue (W272) found on the domain surface. Mutagenesis of this residue selectively impairs the enzyme function on crystalline cellulose but not on soluble or amorphous substrates. Our data shows that W272 forms an additional subsite at the entrance of the active site tunnel and suggests it has a specialised role in crystalline cellulose degradation, possibly in guiding a glucan chain into the tunnel.

Efficient production of L-lactic acid from xylose by Pichia stipitis.

ABSTRACT Microbial conversion of renewable raw materials to useful products is an important objective in industrial biotechnology. Pichia stipitis, a yeast that naturally ferments xylose, was genetically engineered for l-(+)-lactate production. We constructed a P. stipitis strain that expressed the l-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) from Lactobacillus helveticus under the control of the P. stipitis fermentative ADH1 promoter. Xylose, glucose, or a mixture of the two sugars was used as the carbon source for lactate production. The constructed P. stipitis strain produced a higher level of lactate and a higher yield on xylose than on glucose. Lactate accumulated as the main product in xylose-containing medium, with 58 g/liter lactate produced from 100 g/liter xylose. Relatively efficient lactate production also occurred on glucose medium, with 41 g/liter lactate produced from 94 g/liter glucose. In the presence of both sugars, xylose and glucose were consumed simultaneously and converted predominantly to lactate. Lactate was produced at the expense of ethanol, whose production decreased to ∼15 to 30% of the wild-type level on xylose-containing medium and to 70 to 80% of the wild-type level on glucose-containing medium. Thus, LDH competed efficiently with the ethanol pathway for pyruvate, even though the pathway from pyruvate to ethanol was intact. Our results show, for the first time, that lactate production from xylose by a yeast species is feasible and efficient. This is encouraging for further development of yeast-based bioprocesses to produce lactate from lignocellulosic raw material.

Endogenous Xylose Pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

ABSTRACT The bakers yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is generally classified as a non-xylose-utilizing organism. We found that S. cerevisiae can grow on d-xylose when only the endogenous genes GRE3 (YHR104w), coding for a nonspecific aldose reductase, and XYL2 (YLR070c, ScXYL2), coding for a xylitol dehydrogenase (XDH), are overexpressed under endogenous promoters. In nontransformed S. cerevisiae strains, XDH activity was significantly higher in the presence of xylose, but xylose reductase (XR) activity was not affected by the choice of carbon source. The expression of SOR1, encoding a sorbitol dehydrogenase, was elevated in the presence of xylose as were the genes encoding transketolase and transaldolase. An S. cerevisiae strain carrying the XR and XDH enzymes from the xylose-utilizing yeast Pichia stipitis grew more quickly and accumulated less xylitol than did the strain overexpressing the endogenous enzymes. Overexpression of the GRE3 and ScXYL2 genes in the S. cerevisiae CEN.PK2 strain resulted in a growth rate of 0.01 g of cell dry mass liter−1 h−1 and a xylitol yield of 55% when xylose was the main carbon source.

Metabolic flux analysis of xylose metabolism in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae using continuous culture

This study focused on elucidating metabolism of xylose in a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that overexpresses xylose reductase and xylitol dehydrogenase from Pichia stipitis, as well as the endogenous xylulokinase. The influence of xylose on overall metabolism was examined supplemented with low glucose levels with emphasis on two potential bottlenecks; cofactor requirements and xylose uptake. Results of metabolic flux analysis in continuous cultivations show changes in central metabolism due to the cofactor imbalance imposed by the two-step oxidoreductase reaction of xylose to xylulose. A comparison between cultivations on 27:3g/L xylose-glucose mixture and 10g/L glucose revealed that the NADPH-generating flux from glucose-6-phosphate to ribulose-5-phosphate was almost tenfold higher on xylose-glucose mixture and due to the loss of carbon in that pathway the total flux to pyruvate was only around 60% of that on glucose. As a consequence also the fluxes in the citric acid cycle were reduced to around 60%. As the glucose level was decreased to 0.1g/L the fluxes to pyruvate and in the citric acid cycle were further reduced to 30% and 20%, respectively. The results from in vitro and in vivo xylose uptake measurements showed that the specific xylose uptake rate was highest at the lowest glucose level, 0.1g/L.

Regulation of xylose metabolism in recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae

BackgroundConsiderable interest in the bioconversion of lignocellulosic biomass into ethanol has led to metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for fermentation of xylose. In the present study, the transcriptome and proteome of recombinant, xylose-utilising S. cerevisiae grown in aerobic batch cultures on xylose were compared with those of glucose-grown cells both in glucose repressed and derepressed states. The aim was to study at the genome-wide level how signalling and carbon catabolite repression differ in cells grown on either glucose or xylose. The more detailed knowledge whether xylose is sensed as a fermentable carbon source, capable of catabolite repression like glucose, or is rather recognised as a non-fermentable carbon source is important for further engineering this yeast for more efficient anaerobic fermentation of xylose.ResultsGenes encoding respiratory proteins, proteins of the tricarboxylic acid and glyoxylate cycles, and gluconeogenesis were only partially repressed by xylose, similar to the genes encoding their transcriptional regulators HAP4, CAT8 and SIP1-2 and 4. Several genes that are repressed via the Snf1p/Mig1p-pathway during growth on glucose had higher expression in the cells grown on xylose than in the glucose repressed cells but lower than in the glucose derepressed cells. The observed expression profiles of the transcription repressor RGT1 and its target genes HXT2-3, encoding hexose transporters suggested that extracellular xylose was sensed by the glucose sensors Rgt2p and Snf3p. Proteome analyses revealed distinct patterns in phosphorylation of hexokinase 2, glucokinase and enolase isoenzymes in the xylose- and glucose-grown cells.ConclusionThe results indicate that the metabolism of yeast growing on xylose corresponds neither to that of fully glucose repressed cells nor that of derepressed cells. This may be one of the major reasons for the suboptimal fermentation of xylose by recombinant S. cerevisiae strains. Phosphorylation of different isoforms of glycolytic enzymes suggests that regulation of glycolysis also occurred at a post-translational level, supporting prior findings.

Oxygen dependence of metabolic fluxes and energy generation of Saccharomyces cerevisiae CEN.PK113-1A

BackgroundThe yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is able to adjust to external oxygen availability by utilizing both respirative and fermentative metabolic modes. Adjusting the metabolic mode involves alteration of the intracellular metabolic fluxes that are determined by the cells multilevel regulatory network. Oxygen is a major determinant of the physiology of S. cerevisiae but understanding of the oxygen dependence of intracellular flux distributions is still scarce.ResultsMetabolic flux distributions of S. cerevisiae CEN.PK113-1A growing in glucose-limited chemostat cultures at a dilution rate of 0.1 h-1 with 20.9%, 2.8%, 1.0%, 0.5% or 0.0% O2 in the inlet gas were quantified by 13C-MFA. Metabolic flux ratios from fractional [U-13C]glucose labelling experiments were used to solve the underdetermined MFA system of central carbon metabolism of S. cerevisiae.While ethanol production was observed already in 2.8% oxygen, only minor differences in the flux distribution were observed, compared to fully aerobic conditions. However, in 1.0% and 0.5% oxygen the respiratory rate was severely restricted, resulting in progressively reduced fluxes through the TCA cycle and the direction of major fluxes to the fermentative pathway. A redistribution of fluxes was observed in all branching points of central carbon metabolism. Yet only when oxygen provision was reduced to 0.5%, was the biomass yield exceeded by the yields of ethanol and CO2. Respirative ATP generation provided 59% of the ATP demand in fully aerobic conditions and still a substantial 25% in 0.5% oxygenation. An extensive redistribution of fluxes was observed in anaerobic conditions compared to all the aerobic conditions. Positive correlation between the transcriptional levels of metabolic enzymes and the corresponding fluxes in the different oxygenation conditions was found only in the respirative pathway.Conclusion13C-constrained MFA enabled quantitative determination of intracellular fluxes in conditions of different redox challenges without including redox cofactors in metabolite mass balances. A redistribution of fluxes was observed not only for respirative, respiro-fermentative and fermentative metabolisms, but also for cells grown with 2.8%, 1.0% and 0.5% oxygen. Although the cellular metabolism was respiro-fermentative in each of these low oxygen conditions, the actual amount of oxygen available resulted in different contributions through respirative and fermentative pathways.

Enhancement of Protein Secretion in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by Overproduction of Sso Protein, a Late‐acting Component of the Secretory Machinery

Increased production of secreted proteins in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was achieved by overexpressing the yeast syntaxins, Sso1 or Sso2 protein, the t‐SNAREs functioning at the targeting/fusion of the Golgi‐derived secretory vesicles to the plasma membrane. Up to four‐ or six‐fold yields of a heterologous secreted protein, Bacillus α‐amylase, or an endogenous secreted protein, invertase, were obtained respectively when expressing either one of the SSO genes, SSO1 or SSO2, from the ADH1 promoter on a multicopy plasmid. Direct correlation between the Sso protein level and the amount of secreted α‐amylase was demonstrated by modulating the expression level of the SSO2 gene. Quantitation of the α‐amylase activity in the culture medium, periplasmic space and cytoplasm suggests that secretion into the periplasmic space is the primary stage at which the SSO genes exert the secretion‐enhancing function. Pulse‐chase data also support enhanced secretion efficiency obtained by SSO overexpression. Our data suggest that the Sso proteins may be rate‐limiting components of the protein secretion machinery at the exocytosis step in yeast.

Domain function in Trichoderma reesei cellobiohydrolases

Abstract The filamentous fungus, Trichoderma reesei produces all of the enzymatic activities required for efficient hydrolysis of highly ordered crystalline cellulose. All the principal enzymes involved in cellulose hydrolysis possess two functional domains, one directly involved in catalysis and the other in substrate recognition and binding. The availability of high-resolution three dimensional structures of the two domains allows genetic engineering to be used for detailed structure-function studies of these important enzymes.

Modifications to the ADH1 promoter of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for efficient production of heterologous proteins

The promoter of alcohol dehydrogenase I of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was studied using Bacillus amyloliquefaciens alpha-amylase as a marker protein. On glucose, activity of the original ADH1 promoter decreases during late exponential, ethanol production growth phase. When 1100 bp (from -414 bp to -1500 bp) of the upstream sequence are deleted, activity increases into the late ethanol consumption phase but the promoter becomes active only after ethanol production growth phase (Ruohonen et al. (1991) Yeast 7, 337-346). We have now restored 300 bp (from -414 bp to -700 bp) upstream of the deletion site and obtained expression from the ADH1 promoter throughout the yeast growth cycle. The restored sequence allowed alpha-amylase expression to start during early exponential growth phase indicating that it is required for activation of the ADH1 promoter during ethanol production growth phase, possibly through glucose induction. On ethanol, all the promoters were active, but the short promoter was temporally activated first, suggesting that the restored sequence is not required for promoter activity during early oxidative growth.

Xylose chemostat isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae show altered metabolite and enzyme levels compared with xylose, glucose, and ethanol metabolism of the original strain

The efficient conversion of xylose-containing biomass hydrolysate by the ethanologenic yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to useful chemicals such as ethanol still remains elusive, despite significant efforts in both strain and process development. This study focused on the recovery and characterization of xylose chemostat isolates of a S. cerevisiae strain that overexpresses xylose reductase- and xylitol dehydrogenase-encoding genes from Pichia stipitis and the gene encoding the endogenous xylulokinase. The isolates were recovered from aerobic chemostat cultivations on xylose as the sole or main carbon source. Under aerobic conditions, on minimal medium with 30 g l−1 xylose, the growth rate of the chemostat isolates was 3-fold higher than that of the original strain (0.15 h−1 vs 0.05 h−1). In a detailed characterization comparing the metabolism of the isolates with the metabolism of xylose, glucose, and ethanol in the original strain, the isolates showed improved properties in the assumed bottlenecks of xylose metabolism. The xylose uptake rate was increased almost 2-fold. Activities of the key enzymes in the pentose phosphate pathway (transketolase, transaldolase) increased 2-fold while the concentrations of their substrates (pentose 5-phosphates, sedoheptulose 7-phosphate) decreased correspondingly. Under anaerobic conditions, on minimal medium with 45 g l−1 xylose, the ethanol productivity (in terms of cell dry weight; CDW) of one of the isolates increased from 0.012 g g−1 CDW h−1 to 0.017 g g−1 CDW h−1 and the yield from 0.09 g g−1 xylose to 0.14 g g−1 xylose, respectively.