Metabolic Engineering of S. cerevisiae for Production of a Flavour and Fragrance Compound

Abstract

The market of flavours and fragrances in 2016 was estimated to be around 30 billion USD. Due to several reasons, of which the main one is consumers’ growing interest in natural products, the industry has been turning to more sustainable and natural methods such as biotechnology. The aim of this Master’s thesis was to metabolically engineer the fatty acid metabolism of S. cerevisiae for production of a high-value flavour and fragrance compound X using a novel pathway. For this, several enzymes from various organisms belonging to the same enzyme class were screened. Two different background strains were tested from which one most probably produced the compound of interest but in concentrations too low to be detected by the undeveloped capturing and extraction method for compound X. Using a different extraction method, on the other hand, a close precursor Y was detected. Several different fatty acid feedings were also tested in order to increase the production of compounds X and Y but did not seem to have the expected effect. On the other hand, it was shown that one specific fatty acid suitable as an ideal precursor for compound X was taken up intracellularly, even though it did not cause an increase in the precursor Y.