β-Farnesene is widely used in the production of polymers, surfactants, and lubricants, and it also serves as a suitable jet fuel substitute. Microbial biosynthesis offers a sustainable way to produce β-farnesene from renewable feedstocks. Methanol, an ideal feedstock for bio-manufacturing, can be produced in large quantities from CO2 through green energy like solar energy.
Recently, a research group led by Prof. ZHOU Yongjin from theDalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) engineered and optimized Ogataea polymorpha for bioproduction of β-farnesene from sole methanol. The study was published in Metabolic Engineering.
The researchers systematically engineered O. polymorpha by using multiple engineering strategies to create strains optimized for efficient β-farnesene production. They used a fatty acid overproducing strain as the chassis for β-farnesene biosynthesis, as it had already been extensively modified for efficient acetyl-CoA and NADPH supply and adaptively evolved for methanol tolerance. By further optimizing the MVA pathway and engineering acetyl-CoA supply, they achieved a β-farnesene production of 14.7 g/L in a 5-L fed-batch bioreactor.