Evolutionary engineering improves tolerance for medium-chain alcohols in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Yeast-based chemical production is an environmentally friendly alternative to petroleum-based production or processes that involve harsh chemicals. However, many potential alcohol biofuels, such as n-butanol, isobutanol and n-hexanol, are toxic to production organisms, lowering the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of these processes. We set out to improve the tolerance of Saccharomyces cerevisiae toward these alcohols.

Results

We evolved the laboratory strain of S. cerevisiae BY4741 to be more tolerant toward n-hexanol and show that the mutations which confer tolerance occur in proteins of the translation initiation complex. We found that n-hexanol inhibits initiation of translation and evolved mutations in the α subunit

SUBMITTER: Davis Lopez SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5880003 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature