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Technical University of Munich

Reaction engineering analysis of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae for succinic acid production

Gabi Gebhardt, doctoral thesis Technische Universität München, 2010

To evaluate the potential of baker's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of succinic acid, more than 25 different genetically engineered yeast strains were analysed by reaction engineering studies in stirred-tank bioreactors. For the oxidative production of succinic acid from glucose, yeast strains with disruptions in the TCA cycle, derepressed glyoxylate cycle enzymes and improved precursor production were available. With appropriate knock-outs in the TCA cycle S. cerevisiae was able to produce up to 8.5 g/L succinic acid in fed-batch mode. Disruption strains with overexpressions in the glyoxylate cycle exhibited to date only a partial derepression of this cycle. Succinic acid production was considerably increased by overexpression of a transcriptional regulation factor. The reaction engineering data provide the basis for further strain development of S. cerevisiae for succinic acid production.

Publications
  • Gebhardt G, Hortsch R, Kaufmann K, Arnold M, Weuster-Botz D (2011): A new microfluidic concept for parallel operated millilitre-scale stirred-tank bioreactors. Biotechnol Prog 27: 684-690.
  • Raab A, Gebhardt G, Bolotina N, Weuster-Botz D, Lang C (2010): Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the biotechnological production of succinic acid. Metabol Eng, 12: 518-525.
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