https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2220816120
https://www.cas.cn/syky/202303/t20230316_4880333.shtml
Zhou Yongjin and team at the CAS Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics have coupled methanol utilization with fatty alcohol biosynthesis through metabolic pathway compartmentalization in methanolic yeast. Normally, the yield of fatty alcohols synthesized by modified Hansenula polymorpha using methanol as raw material is very low due to the toxicity of methanol and the complex regulatory process of methanol metabolism. The team targeted the fatty alcohol synthesis pathway to the peroxisome to couple methanol metabolism, increasing the yield of fatty alcohol synthesis by 3.9 times. Subsequently, the team further increased the yield of fatty alcohol synthesis by 2.5 times by strengthening the precursor supply, reducing power supply, methanol tolerance, and formaldehyde assimilation process. In the end, the team realized the synthesis of 3.6 grams of fatty alcohol by the engineered strain in a 1-liter fermenter.