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Title: Repurposing the Saccharomyces cerevisiae peroxisome for compartmentalizing multi-enzyme pathways

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1394729· OSTI ID:1394729

The peroxisome of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was targeted for repurposing in order to create a synthetic organelle that provides a generalizable compartment for engineered metabolic pathways. Compartmentalization of enzymes into organelles is a promising strategy for limiting metabolic crosstalk, improving pathway efficiency, and ultimately modifying the chemical environment to be distinct from that of the cytoplasm. We focused on the Saccharomyces cerevisiae peroxisome, as this organelle is not required for viability when grown on conventional media. We identified an enhanced peroxisomal targeting signal type 1 (PTS1) for rapidly importing non-native cargo proteins. Additionally, we performed the first systematic in vivo measurements of nonspecific metabolite permeability across the peroxisomal membrane using a polymer exclusion assay and characterized the size dependency of metabolite trafficking. Finally, we applied these new insights to compartmentalize a two-enzyme pathway in the peroxisome and characterize the expression regimes where compartmentalization leads to improved product titer. This work builds a foundation for using the peroxisome as a synthetic organelle, highlighting both promise and future challenges on the way to realizing this goal.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0008084
OSTI ID:
1394729
Report Number(s):
DOE-BERKELEY-0008084
Resource Relation:
Related Information: additional data are described in the supplementary information from the Nature Communication paper (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11152).
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English