Characterisation of the broad substrate specificity 2-keto acid decarboxylase Aro10p of Saccharomyces kudriavzevii and its implication in aroma development.

BACKGROUND: The yeast amino acid catabolism plays an important role in flavour generation since higher alcohols and acetate esters, amino acid catabolism end products, are key components of overall flavour and aroma in fermented products. Comparative studies have shown that other Saccharomyces species, such as S. kudriavzevii, differ during the production of aroma-active higher alcohols and their esters compared to S. cerevisiae. RESULTS: In this study, we performed a comparative analysis of the enzymes involved in the amino acid catabolism of S. kudriavzevii with their potential to improve the flavour production capacity of S. cerevisiae. In silico screening, based on the severity of amino acid substitutions evaluated by Grantham matrix, revealed four candidates, of which S. kudriavzevii Aro10p (SkAro10p) had the highest score. The analysis of higher alcohols and esters produced by S. cerevisiae then revealed enhanced formation of isobutanol, isoamyl alcohol and their esters when endogenous ARO10 was replaced with ARO10 from S. kudriavzevii. Also, significant differences in the aroma profile were found in fermentations of synthetic wine must. Substrate specificities of SkAro10p were compared with those of S. cerevisiae Aro10p (ScAro10p) by their expression in a 2-keto acid decarboxylase-null S. cerevisiae strain. Unlike the cell extracts with expressed ScAro10p which showed greater activity for phenylpyruvate, which suggests this phenylalanine-derivative to be the preferred substrate, the decarboxylation activities measured in the cell extracts with SkAro10p ranged with all the tested substrates at the same level. The activities of SkAro10p towards substrates (except phenylpyruvate) were higher than of those for ScAro10p. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the amino acid variations observed between the orthologues decarboxylases encoded by SkARO10 and ScARO10 could be the reason for the distinct enzyme properties, which possibly lead to the enhanced production of several flavour compounds. The knowledge on the important enzyme involved in higher alcohols biosynthesis by S. kudriavzevii could be of scientific as well as of applied interest.

Deletion of the Saccharomyces cerevisiae ARO8 gene, encoding an aromatic amino acid transaminase, enhances phenylethanol production from glucose.

Phenylethanol has a characteristic rose-like aroma that makes it a popular ingredient in foods, beverages and cosmetics. Microbial production of phenylethanol currently relies on whole-cell bioconversion of phenylalanine with yeasts that harbour an Ehrlich pathway for phenylalanine catabolism. Complete biosynthesis of phenylethanol from a cheap carbon source, such as glucose, provides an economically attractive alternative for phenylalanine bioconversion. In this study, synthetic genetic array (SGA) screening was applied to identify genes involved in regulation of phenylethanol synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The screen focused on transcriptional regulation of ARO10, which encodes the major decarboxylase involved in conversion of phenylpyruvate to phenylethanol. A deletion in ARO8, which encodes an aromatic amino acid transaminase, was found to underlie the transcriptional upregulation of ARO10 during growth, with ammonium sulphate as the sole nitrogen source. Physiological characterization revealed that the aro8Δ mutation led to substantial changes in the absolute and relative intracellular concentrations of amino acids. Moreover, deletion of ARO8 led to de novo production of phenylethanol during growth on a glucose synthetic medium with ammonium as the sole nitrogen source. The aro8Δ mutation also stimulated phenylethanol production when combined with other, previously documented, mutations that deregulate aromatic amino acid biosynthesis in S. cerevisiae. The resulting engineered S. cerevisiae strain produced >3 mm phenylethanol from glucose during growth on a simple synthetic medium. The strong impact of a transaminase deletion on intracellular amino acid concentrations opens new possibilities for yeast-based production of amino acid-derived products.

Functional analysis and transcriptional regulation of two orthologs of ARO10, encoding broad-substrate-specificity 2-oxo-acid decarboxylases, in the brewing yeast Saccharomyces pastorianus CBS1483.

The hybrid genomes of Saccharomyces pastorianus consist of subgenomes similar to those of S. cerevisiae and S. eubayanus, and impact of the genome structure on flavour production and its regulation is poorly understood. This study focuses on ARO10, a 2-oxo-acid decarboxylase involved in production of higher alcohols. In S. pastorianus CBS1483, four ARO10 copies were identified, three resembled S. cerevisiae ARO10 and one S. eubayanus ARO10. Substrate specificities of lager strain (Lg)ScAro10 and LgSeubAro10 were compared by individually expressing them in a pdc1Δ-pdc5Δ-pdc6Δ-aro10Δ-thi3Δ S. cerevisiae strain. Both isoenzymes catalysed decarboxylation of the 2-oxo-acids derived from branched-chain, sulphur-containing amino acids and preferably phenylpyruvate. Expression of both alleles was induced by phenylalanine, however in contrast to the S. cerevisiae strain, the two genes were not induced by leucine. Additionally, LgSeubARO10 showed higher basal expression levels during growth with ammonia. ARO80, which encodes ARO10 transcriptional activator, is located on CHRIV and counts three Sc-like and one Seub-like copies. Deletion of LgSeubARO80 did not affect LgSeubARO10 phenylalanine induction, revealing 'trans' regulation across the subgenomes. ARO10 transcript levels showed a poor correlation with decarboxylase activities. These results provide insights into flavour formation in S. pastorianus and illustrate the complexity of functional characterization in aneuploid strains.

Substrate specificity of thiamine pyrophosphate-dependent 2-oxo-acid decarboxylases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Fusel alcohols are precursors and contributors to flavor and aroma compounds in fermented beverages, and some are under investigation as biofuels. The decarboxylation of 2-oxo acids is a key step in the Ehrlich pathway for fusel alcohol production. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, five genes share sequence similarity with genes encoding thiamine pyrophosphate-dependent 2-oxo-acid decarboxylases (2ODCs). PDC1, PDC5, and PDC6 encode differentially regulated pyruvate decarboxylase isoenzymes; ARO10 encodes a 2-oxo-acid decarboxylase with broad substrate specificity, and THI3 has not yet been shown to encode an active decarboxylase. Despite the importance of fusel alcohol production in S. cerevisiae, the substrate specificities of these five 2ODCs have not been systematically compared. When the five 2ODCs were individually overexpressed in a pdc1Δ pdc5Δ pdc6Δ aro10Δ thi3Δ strain, only Pdc1, Pdc5, and Pdc6 catalyzed the decarboxylation of the linear-chain 2-oxo acids pyruvate, 2-oxo-butanoate, and 2-oxo-pentanoate in cell extracts. The presence of a Pdc isoenzyme was also required for the production of n-propanol and n-butanol in cultures grown on threonine and norvaline, respectively, as nitrogen sources. These results demonstrate the importance of pyruvate decarboxylases in the natural production of n-propanol and n-butanol by S. cerevisiae. No decarboxylation activity was found for Thi3 with any of the substrates tested. Only Aro10 and Pdc5 catalyzed the decarboxylation of the aromatic substrate phenylpyruvate, with Aro10 showing superior kinetic properties. Aro10, Pdc1, Pdc5, and Pdc6 exhibited activity with all branched-chain and sulfur-containing 2-oxo acids tested but with markedly different decarboxylation kinetics. The high affinity of Aro10 identified it as a key contributor to the production of branched-chain and sulfur-containing fusel alcohols.

Resolving phenylalanine metabolism sheds light on natural synthesis of penicillin G in Penicillium chrysogenum.

The industrial production of penicillin G by Penicillium chrysogenum requires the supplementation of the growth medium with the side chain precursor phenylacetate. The growth of P. chrysogenum with phenylalanine as the sole nitrogen source resulted in the extracellular production of phenylacetate and penicillin G. To analyze this natural pathway for penicillin G production, chemostat cultures were switched to [U-(13)C]phenylalanine as the nitrogen source. The quantification and modeling of the dynamics of labeled metabolites indicated that phenylalanine was (i) incorporated in nascent protein, (ii) transaminated to phenylpyruvate and further converted by oxidation or by decarboxylation, and (iii) hydroxylated to tyrosine and subsequently metabolized via the homogentisate pathway. The involvement of the homogentisate pathway was supported by the comparative transcriptome analysis of P. chrysogenum cultures grown with phenylalanine and with (NH(4))(2)SO(4) as the nitrogen source. This transcriptome analysis also enabled the identification of two putative 2-oxo acid decarboxylase genes (Pc13g9300 and Pc18g01490). cDNAs of both genes were cloned and expressed in the 2-oxo-acid-decarboxylase-free Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain CEN.PK711-7C (pdc1 pdc5 pdc6Δ aro10Δ thi3Δ). The introduction of Pc13g09300 restored the growth of this S. cerevisiae mutant on glucose and phenylalanine, thereby demonstrating that Pc13g09300 encodes a dual-substrate pyruvate and phenylpyruvate decarboxylase, which plays a key role in an Ehrlich-type pathway for the production of phenylacetate in P. chrysogenum. These results provide a basis for the metabolic engineering of P. chrysogenum for the production of the penicillin G side chain precursor phenylacetate.

Synchronous protein cycling in batch cultures of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae at log growth phase.

The assumption that cells are temporally organized systems, i.e. showing relevant dynamics of their state variables such as gene expression or protein and metabolite concentration, while tacitly given for granted at the molecular level, is not explicitly taken into account when interpreting biological experimental data. This conundrum stems from the (undemonstrated) assumption that a cell culture, the actual object of biological experimentation, is a population of billions of independent oscillators (cells) randomly experiencing different phases of their cycles and thus not producing relevant coordinated dynamics at the population level. Moreover the fact of considering reproductive cycle as by far the most important cyclic process in a cell resulted in lower attention given to other rhythmic processes. Here we demonstrate that growing yeast cells show a very repeatable and robust cyclic variation of the concentration of proteins with different cellular functions. We also report experimental evidence that the mechanism governing this basic oscillator and the cellular entrainment is resistant to external chemical constraints. Finally, cell growth is accompanied by cyclic dynamics of medium pH. These cycles are observed in batch cultures, different from the usual continuous cultures in which yeast metabolic cycles are known to occur, and suggest the existence of basic, spontaneous, collective and synchronous behaviors of the cell population as a whole.

Optimization of recombinant fungal laccase production with strains of the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis from the pyruvate decarboxylase promoter.

Laccases are multicopper oxidases of wide specificity that catalyze the oxidation of phenolic and related compounds using molecular oxygen as the electron acceptor. Here, we report the production of the Lcc1 laccase of the fungus Trametes trogii in strains of the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis, using the pyruvate decarboxylase promoter (KlPDC1) as an expression system. We assayed laccase production in various strains, with replicative and integrative transformants and with different cultivation parameters. A comparison with Lcc1 enzymes from other yeasts and from the original organism was also performed. The best production conditions were obtained with integrative transformants of an individual strain, whereas cultivation conditions were less stringent than the use of the regulated KlPDC1 promoter could anticipate. The secreted recombinant laccase showed better enzyme properties than the native enzyme or recombinant enzyme from other yeasts. We conclude that selected K. lactis strains, with opportune physiological properties and transcription regulation of the heterologous gene, could be optimal hosts for laccase isoenzyme production.