Project description:Previously, it has been demonstrated that formate can be utilized by Saccharomyces cerevisiae as additional energy source using cells grown in a glucose-limited chemostat. Here, we investigated utilization of formaldehyde as co-substrate. Since endogenous formaldehyde dehydrogenase activities were insufficient to allow co-feeding of formaldehyde, the Hansenula polymorpha FLD1, encoding formaldehyde dehydrogenase, was introduced in S. cerevisiae. Chemostat cultivations revealed that formaldehyde was co-utilized with glucose, but the yield was lower than predicted. Moreover, formate was secreted by the cells. Upon co-expression of the H. polymorpha gene encoding formate dehydrogenase, FMD, the levels of secreted formate decreased, but the biomass yield was still lower than anticipated. Transcriptome comparisons of cells of the engineered FLD1/FMD-expressing S. cerevisiae strain grown with or without formaldehyde feed, suggested that the cells experienced biotin limitation, possibly due to inactivation of biotin by formaldehyde in the feed. When separate feeds were used for formaldehyde and biotin, the engineered S. cerevisiae strain was able to efficiently utilize formaldehyde as additional energy source. Keywords: response to additional compound
