YeastFab: The design and construction of standard biological parts for metabolic engineering in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Yakun Guo
  • Junkai Dong
  • Tong Zhou
  • Auxillos, Jamie Yam
  • Tianyi Li
  • Weimin Zhang
  • Lihui Wang
  • Yue Shen
  • Yisha Luo
  • Yijing Zheng
  • Jiwei Lin
  • Guo Qiang Chen
  • Qingyu Wu
  • Yizhi Cai
  • Junbiao Dai

It is a routine task in metabolic engineering to introduce multicomponent pathways into a heterologous host for production of metabolites. However, this process sometimes may take weeks to months due to the lack of standardized genetic tools. Here, we present a method for the design and construction of biological parts based on the native genes and regulatory elements in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We have developed highly efficient protocols (termed YeastFab Assembly) to synthesize these genetic elements as standardized biological parts, which can be used to assemble transcriptional units in a single-tube reaction. In addition, standardized characterization assays are developed using reporter constructs to calibrate the function of promoters. Furthermore, the assembled transcription units can be either assayed individually or applied to construct multi-gene metabolic pathways, which targets a genomic locus or a receiving plasmid effectively, through a simple in vitro reaction. Finally, using β-carotene biosynthesis pathway as an example, we demonstrate that our method allows us not only to construct and test a metabolic pathway in several days, but also to optimize the production through combinatorial assembly of a pathway using hundreds of regulatory biological parts.

Original languageEnglish
JournalNucleic Acids Research
Volume43
Issue number13
Pages (from-to)e88
ISSN0305-1048
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 27 Apr 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2015.

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