Adaptive laboratory evolution of native methanol assimilation in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Monica I. Espinosa, Ricardo A. Gonzalez-Garcia, Kaspar Valgepea, Manuel R. Plan, Colin Scott, Isak S. Pretorius, Esteban Marcellin, Ian T. Paulsen*, Thomas C. Williams

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    65 Citations (Scopus)
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    Abstract

    Utilising one-carbon substrates such as carbon dioxide, methane, and methanol is vital to address the current climate crisis. Methylotrophic metabolism enables growth and energy generation from methanol, providing an alternative to sugar fermentation. Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important industrial microorganism for which growth on one-carbon substrates would be relevant. However, its ability to metabolize methanol has been poorly characterised. Here, using adaptive laboratory evolution and 13C-tracer analysis, we discover that S. cerevisiae has a native capacity for methylotrophy. A systems biology approach reveals that global rearrangements in central carbon metabolism fluxes, gene expression changes, and a truncation of the uncharacterized transcriptional regulator Ygr067cp supports improved methylotrophy in laboratory evolved S. cerevisiae. This research paves the way for further biotechnological development and fundamental understanding of methylotrophy in the preeminent eukaryotic model organism and industrial workhorse, S. cerevisiae.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number5564
    Pages (from-to)1-12
    Number of pages12
    JournalNature Communications
    Volume11
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 4 Nov 2020

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright the Author(s) 2020. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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