Engineering Pichia pastoris for improved NADH regeneration: A novel chassis strain for whole-cell catalysis

• Martina Geier,
• Christoph Brandner,
• Gernot A. Strohmeier,
• Mélanie Hall,
• Franz S. Hartner and
• Anton Glieder

Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2015, 11, 1741–1748, doi:10.3762/bjoc.11.190

• utilization pathway of Pichia pastoris for improved NADH regeneration. By deleting the genes coding for dihydroxyacetone synthase isoform 1 and 2 (DAS1 and DAS2), NADH regeneration via methanol oxidation (dissimilation) was increased significantly. The resulting Δdas1 Δdas2 strain performed better in

• an efficient and easy-to-use strategy for NADH-dependent whole-cell conversions. At the same time methanol serves as co-solvent, inductor for catalyst and cofactor regeneration pathway expression and source of energy. Keywords: bioreduction; cofactor regeneration; dihydroxyacetone synthase; methanol

• generated via the dissimilatory pathway and full oxidation of the single carbon molecule methanol. Alternatively, in a simplified model formaldehyde is condensed with D-xylulose-5-phosphate and subsequently converted into dihydroxyacetone and D-glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate by dihydroxyacetone synthase (DAS