Fatty aldehydes and alcohols are valuable precursors used in the industrial manufacturing of a myriad of specialty products. Herein, we demonstrate the de novo production of odd chain-length fatty aldehydes and fatty alcohols in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by expressing a novel biosynthetic pathway involving cytosolic thioesterase, rice α-dioxygenase and endogenous aldehyde reductases. We attained production titers of ∼20 mg/l fatty aldehydes and ∼20 mg/l fatty alcohols in shake flask cultures after 48 and 60 h respectively without extensive fine-tuning of metabolic fluxes. In contrast to prior studies which relied on bi-functional fatty acyl-CoA reductase to produce even chain-length fatty alcohols, our biosynthetic route exploits α-oxidation reaction to produce odd chain-length fatty aldehyde intermediates without using NAD(P)H cofactor, thereby conserving cellular resource during the overall synthesis of odd chain-length fatty alcohols. The biosynthetic pathway presented in this study has the potential to enable sustainable and efficient synthesis of fatty acid-derived chemicals from processed biomass.

• PMID: 26461930
• DOI full text
• PubMed
• PubTator

Reference Type

Journal Article | Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Authors

Jin Z, Wong A, Foo JL, Ng J, Cao YX, Chang MW, Yuan YJ

Primary Lit For

Additional Lit For

Review For