https://www.cas.cn/cm/202411/t20241119_5039864.shtml

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-024-07103-7

Yeast, as an important microorganism, is widely used in the production of food, medicine and biofuels. One of its most valuable abilities is the synthesis of lipids. Lipids are high-value compounds with a wide range of applications in daily life, including biofuels, nutritional supplements, and cosmetics. For example, lipids extracted from yeast could be used as a renewable fuel source or as an ingredient in nutraceuticals because they contain beneficial fatty acids.

One of the key factors in yeast lipid synthesis is acetyl-CoA. This important precursor serves as the “raw material” for lipid molecules and is an essential substance for lipid synthesis. However, traditional metabolic pathways limit the effective supply of acetyl-CoA and accumulation of lipids, which results in insufficient lipid production.

A team from CAS Institute of Modern Physics using the Lanzhou Heavy Ion Accelerator to treat S. cerevisiae with heavy ion radiation, combined multi-omics methods, identified and verified ALD4 as the key gene related to lipid metabolism. Using gene editing technology, the metabolic flux of ALD4 core metabolic intermediates was unregulated, effectively increasing the supply of acetyl-CoA by 17 %, thereby significantly improving the performance of yeast for the production of synthetic lipids and other high value-added compounds.