Production of sesquiterpene patchoulol in mitochondrion-engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Patchoulol is a natural sesquiterpene, which is widely used in perfumes and cosmetics. In the work, the mitochondria of S. cerevisiae were engineered for patchoulol production. The patchoulol titer of mitochondria-compartmentalized strain (1.79 mg/L) was 2.71-fold higher than that of control strain (0.66 mg/L) using genome-integrated patchoulol synthase, indicating that mitochondria compartmentation resulted in higher concentration of FPP (farnesyl pyrophosphate) precursor for patchoulol production. Moreover, when fused FPP synthase and patchoulol synthase was overexpressed in the strain with a mitochondria-localized DMAPP (dimethylallyl diphosphate) pathway, the production of patchoulol increased significantly to 19.24 mg/L, indicating more precursors were provided for patchoulol production. Nevertheless, the introduction of excess foreign proteins into mitochondria might cause a certain stress on mitochondria and showed a negative effect on the growth of yeast cells, which could hinder the expression of foreign pathways and reduce the patchoulol production. In conclusion, mitochondria-engineered yeast cells showed important potential for the enhanced biosynthesis of patchoulol, and further engineering could be considered based on the present work.