Bioconversion of xylose into high-value products by engineered saccharomyces cerevisiae

Significant efforts over the past few decades have focused on engineering the common brewer’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae to consume xylose, the second-most abundant sugar in nature. Throughout these efforts, the goal has primarily been towards biofuels with ethanol as a target product. This research revealed that many aspects of xylose metabolism in yeast are unfavorable for production of ethanol and substantial efforts have been directed towards enhancing yeast’s limited ability to produce ethanol from xylose. With this narrow focus, many aspects of xylose metabolism have been overlooked which favor the production of non-ethanol compounds. I present here a literature review of all compounds which have been produced from xylose using engineered S. cerevisiae. Additionally, I will present personal research into developing engineering yeast strains capable of producing three compounds from xylose: isobutanol, sedoheptulose, and gadusol. Finally, I investigate the benefits of xylose metabolism towards lactic acid production and show that simultaneous co-fermentation of glucose and xylose leads to enhanced lactic acid yields. This work aims to highlight the benefits of xylose metabolism for many yeast metabolic engineering efforts and hopes to promote additional work into this fruitful area of research.LimitedAuthor requested closed access (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD syste