Improving l-phenylacetylcarbinol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by in silico aided metabolic engineering

L-Phenylacetylcarbinol (L-PAC) which is used as a precursor for the production of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine is the first reported biologically produced α-hydroxy ketone compound. l-PAC is commercially produced by the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Yeast cells transform exogenously added benzaldehyde into l-PAC by using the action of pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) enzyme. In this work, genome-scale model and flux balance analysis were used to identify novel target genes for the enhancement of l-PAC production in yeast. The effect of gene deletions on the flux distributions in the metabolic model of S. cerevisiae was assessed using OptGene and minimization of metabolic adjustments. Six single gene deletion strains, namely Δrpe1, Δpda1, Δadh3, Δadh1, Δzwf1 and Δpdc1, were predicted in silico and further tested in vivo by using knock-out strains cultivated semi-anaerobically on glucose and benzaldehyde as substrates. Δzwf1 mutant exhibited the highest l-PAC formation (2.48 g/L) by using 2 g/L of benzaldehyde which is equivalent to 88 % of the theoretical yield.