Yeast metabolic engineering for carbon dioxide fixation and its application

Area of Science:

• Biotechnology
• Metabolic Engineering
• Synthetic Biology

Background:

• Industrial bioprocesses often rely on yeast fermentation.
• Developing CO2-fixing yeast strains supports sustainable practices and carbon neutrality.
• Current research explores enabling CO2 fixation in yeast for biofuel and biochemical production.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review recent advances in metabolic engineering for CO2 fixation in yeast.
• To discuss the potential of RuBisCO-dependent and independent pathways for CO2 fixation.
• To highlight the development of yeast strains for producing value-added biochemicals.

Main Methods:

• Expression of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase-oxygenase (RuBisCO) in yeast species like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Kluyveromyces marxianus.
• Engineering synthetic Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycles in Pichia pastoris for autotrophic growth.
• Exploring natural and synthetic metabolic pathways for CO2 utilization.

Main Results:

• RuBisCO expression enables mixotrophic CO2 fixation and biofuel production in S. cerevisiae and K. marxianus.
• Synthetic CBB cycle expression allows autotrophic growth on CO2 in P. pastoris.
• Metabolic engineering strategies are advancing yeast's CO2 fixation capabilities.

Conclusions:

• Engineered yeast strains show significant potential for sustainable industrial bioprocesses.
• CO2-fixing yeasts can contribute to carbon neutrality goals.
• Further research into diverse metabolic pathways can enhance yeast's capacity for producing valuable chemicals from CO2.