Production of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid by metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica.

The availability of the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is currently limited because they are produced mainly by marine fisheries that cannot keep pace with the demands of the growing market for these products. A sustainable non-animal source of EPA and DHA is needed. Metabolic engineering of the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica resulted in a strain that produced EPA at 15% of dry cell weight. The engineered yeast lipid comprises EPA at 56.6% and saturated fatty acids at less than 5% by weight, which are the highest and the lowest percentages, respectively, among known EPA sources. Inactivation of the peroxisome biogenesis gene PEX10 was crucial in obtaining high EPA yields and may increase the yields of other commercially desirable lipid-related products. This technology platform enables the production of lipids with tailored fatty acid compositions and provides a sustainable source of EPA.

Use FACS sorting in metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for increased peptide production.

Many proteins and peptides have been used in therapeutic or industrial applications. They are often produced as recombinant forms by microbial fermentation. Targeted metabolic engineering of the production strains has usually been the approach taken to increase protein production, and this approach requires sufficient knowledge about cell metabolism and regulation. Random screening is an alternative approach that could circumvent the knowledge requirement, but is hampered by lack of suitable high-throughput screening methods. We developed a novel fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) method to screen for cells with increased peptide production. Using a model peptide rich in certain amino acids, we showed that increased fluorescence clones sorted from a plasmid expression library contained genes encoding rate-limiting enzymes for amino acid synthesis. These expression clones showed increased peptide production. This demonstrated that FACS could be used as a very powerful tool for metabolic engineering. It can be generally applied to other products or processes if the desired phenotype could be correlated with a fluorescence or light scattering parameter on the FACS.