Engineering S. Cerevisiae for Production of Medium Chain Hydrocarbons

Engineering S. cerevisiae for production of medium chain hydrocarbons

Pei Yu Lim, Hazarki Yaohari, Hongxin Zhao, Bin Bin Chen, Hua Ling, Matthew Wook Chang, Susanna Su Jan Leong

School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,

62 Nanyang Drive, Singapore 637459, Singapore

Biofuel production in microbial platforms using renewable sugar feedstocks is a promising strategy that can potentially address shortage of non-renewable petroleum fuels, which has become a global problem today. The advancement of genetic and metabolic engineering tools has opened the way for rational engineering of microbes to produce a wide range of target products including fuel molecules. In this study, we report the engineering of S. cerevisiae for the production of saturated hydrocarbons, which are essential components of petroleum fuels. We constructed a pathway in S. cerevisiae that demonstrated efficient conversion of medium chain fatty acids into alkanes via two steps (i.e. reduction followed by decarbonylation) with uncompromised cell viability. Protein engineering efforts are also underway to further improve conversion yield to attain economic viable titers of the end product.