Gene Amplification on Demand Accelerates Cellobiose Utilization in Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Efficient microbial utilization of cellulosic sugars is essential for the economic production of biofuels and chemicals. Although the yeastSaccharomyces cerevisiae is a robust microbial platform widely used in ethanol plants using sugar cane and corn starch in large-scale operations, glucose repression is one of the significant barriers to the efficient fermentation of cellulosic sugar mixtures. A recent study demonstrated that intracellular utilization of cellobiose by engineered yeast expressing a cellobiose transporter (encoded bycdt-1 ) and an intracellular β-glucosidase (encoded bygh1-1 ) can alleviate glucose repression, resulting in the simultaneous cofermentation of cellobiose and nonglucose sugars. Here we report enhanced cellobiose fermentation by engineered yeast expressingcdt-1 andgh1-1 through laboratory evolution. Whencdt-1 andgh1-1 were integrated into the genome of yeast, the single copy integrant showed a low cellobiose consumption rate. However, cellobiose fermentation rates by engineered yeast increased gradually during serial subcultures on cellobiose. Finally, an evolved strain exhibited a 15-fold-higher cellobiose fermentation rate. To identify the responsible mutations in the evolved strain, genome sequencing was performed. Interestingly, no mutations affecting cellobiose fermentation were identified, but the evolved strain contained 9 copies ofcdt-1 and 23 copies ofgh1-1 . We also traced the copy numbers ofcdt-1 andgh1-1 of mixed populations during the serial subcultures. The copy numbers ofcdt-1 andgh1-1 in the cultures increased gradually with similar ratios as cellobiose fermentation rates of the cultures increased. These results suggest that the cellobiose assimilation pathway (transport and hydrolysis) might be a rate-limiting step in engineered yeast and copies of genes coding for metabolic enzymes might be amplified in yeast if there is a growth advantage. This study indicates that on-demand gene amplification might be an efficient strategy for yeast metabolic engineering.IMPORTANCE In order to enable rapid and efficient fermentation of cellulosic hydrolysates by engineered yeast, we delve into the limiting factors of cellobiose fermentation by engineered yeast expressing a cellobiose transporter (encoded bycdt-1 ) and an intracellular β-glucosidase (encoded bygh1-1 ). Through laboratory evolution, we isolated mutant strains capable of fermenting cellobiose much faster than a parental strain. Genome sequencing of the fast cellobiose-fermenting mutant reveals that there are massive amplifications ofcdt-1 andgh1-1 in the yeast genome. We also found positive and quantitative relationships between the rates of cellobiose consumption and the copy numbers ofcdt-1 andgh1-1 in the evolved strains. Our results suggest that the cellobiose assimilation pathway (transport and hydrolysis) might be a rate-limiting step for efficient cellobiose fermentation. We demonstrate the feasibility of optimizing not only heterologous metabolic pathways in yeast through laboratory evolution but also on-demand gene amplification in yeast, which can be broadly applicable for metabolic engineering.