Regulation of lipid biosynthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

随着世界寻求摆脱对石油作为燃料和化学品主要来源的依赖，人们对发展生物经济以寻找替代品的兴趣日益浓厚。油类的主要生物来源是油菜籽和棕榈等植物。这些来源的油是可再生的，但我们对其成分和性质的控制有限。此外，将食用油用于化学或燃料生产还有一个固有的问题。这一问题在棕榈种植园覆盖大片可耕地的地区更为严重，导致雨林被烧毁，生物多样性丧失。此外，依赖这些油和产品的行业面临着一个供应链，可能会因生长季节不佳或真菌感染而中断。酵母细胞可以将低价值的生物质转化为油，称为单细胞油。这项研究计划的目标是发现如何控制这些油的生产和成分。我们采用各种尖端技术来研究酵母的油脂生产，重点研究细胞中众多酶活性如何协调以产生具有特定性质的产品。我们的目标是利用这些信息来修改细胞，以生产石油和生物产品，否则这些产品将从石油化工产品中生产出来，或者从蔬菜来源中稀有而难以生产出来。我们已经发现，产生单不饱和脂肪酸的酶之间存在特定的物理相互作用，这些酶将这些脂肪酸困在一条途径中，限制它们流向其他产品。我们试图定义这些相互作用，以增加我们对脂质生物合成的理解，并帮助我们绘制路线图，指导我们在工程细胞中努力成为设计工厂，以“按需”生产所需的油或具有特定特性的生物产品。事实上，微生物细胞有可能生产出像多不饱和欧米伽3油或可可脂这样的油，这些油很有价值，但很难或不可能用化学方法合成。加拿大的生物技术和生物制品行业正在迅速发展，我的研究项目旨在不仅提供技术，而且提供训练有素的人才，他们具有最先进的应用技能，以推动该行业的发展，并填补其成功所需的高技能职位。

As the world seeks to move away from dependence on petroleum as a primary source for fuels and chemicals there is growing interest in developing the bioeconomy to find replacements. A primary biological source of oils is plants like canola and palm. The oil from these sources is renewable but we have limited control over its composition and properties. Additionally, there is an inherent problem with using food oil for chemical or fuel production. This problem is amplified in parts of the world where palm plantations cover enormous swaths of the arable land leading to burning of rainforest and loss of biodiversity. Additionally, industries that depend on these oils and products face a supply chain that can be disrupted by a poor growing season, or fungal infection. Yeast cells can convert low value biomass into oils referred to as single cell oils. The goal of this research program is to discover how the production and composition of these oils is controlled. We employ a variety of cutting edge technologies to investigate oil production in yeast with an emphasis on how numerous enzyme activities in the cells are coordinated to create products with specific properties. We aim to use this information to modify the cells to produce oil and bioproducts that would otherwise be produced from petrochemicals or that are rare and difficult to produce from vegetable sources. We have discovered that there are specific physical interactions among enzymes that produce mono-unsaturated fatty acids that trap those fatty acids into a pathway that limits them from flowing toward other products. We seek to define these interactions to increase our understanding of lipid biosynthesis and aid us in drawing a roadmap to guide our efforts in engineering cells to become designer factories that produce desired oils or bioproducts with specific properties "on demand". Indeed microbial cells have the potential to produce oils like poly-unsaturated omega 3 oils or cacao butter that are valuable but difficult or impossible to synthesize chemically. The biotechnology and bioproducts sector is rapidly expanding in Canada and my research program aims to provide not only technology but also high trained personnel with skills in state of the art applications to drive this sector and fill the high skilled positions necessary for its success.