Developing Yarrowia lipolytica as a platform-organism for sustainable biomanufacturing
Supervisors:
Prof John Christie, School of Molecular Biosciences, (University of Glasgow)
Dr Chris McInerny, School of Molecular Biosciences (University of Glasgow)
Summary:
Yarrowia lipolytica is a non-conventional yeast with features that make it very attractive as a viable, industrial cell factory for sustainable bio-manufacturing as it can utilize a broad range of feedstocks, produces oleochemicals, and organic acids and is robust against many demands of industrial biomanufacturing (e.g., pH extremes and high concentrations of organic molecules). To leverage Y. lipolytica as a platform-organism for biomanufacturing, and to achieve the high yields needed for economic viability, robust and product-agnostic strategies are needed to harness high carbon flux through key central metabolites, especially pyruvate and acetyl-CoA. These ‘building-block’ metabolites are precursors to a wide range of commercially important molecules, including amino acid and organic acid intermediates of interest to the industrial sponsors; Ingenza and MCUK (see Lebeau 2020 for details). This proposed CASE project is an engineering biology study that aims to improve basic knowledge of Y. lipolytica molecular genetics, biochemistry and physiology through a focused, systematic study of biochemical pathway engineering and regulation. The project therefore provides the opportunity to work in both an academic and industrial setting and gain a wide skillset in yeast molecular genetics, biochemistry and physiology. The project also aims to investigate new strategies for biochemical pathway engineering and regulation (e.g., metabolic flux control through optogenetic regulation of enzyme abundance).