Metabolic engineering of Schizosaccharomyces pombe via CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing for lactic acid production from glucose and cellobiose

Modification of the Schizosaccharomyces pombe genome is often laborious, time consuming due to the lower efficiency of homologous recombination. Here, we constructed metabolically engineered S. pombe strains using a CRISPR-Cas9 system and also demonstrated D-lactic acid (D-LA) production from glucose and cellobiose. Genes encoding two separate pyruvate decarboxylases (PDCs), an L-lactic acid dehydrogenase (L-LDH), and a minor alcohol dehydrogenase (SPBC337.11) were disrupted, thereby attenuating ethanol production. To increase the cellular supply of acetyl-CoA, an important metabolite for growth, we introduced genes encoding bacterial acetylating acetaldehyde dehydrogenase enzymes (Escherichia coli MhpF and EutE). D-LA production by the resulting strain was achieved by expressing a Lactobacillus plantarum gene encoding D-lactate dehydrogenase. The engineered strain efficiently consumed glucose and produced D-LA at 25.2 g/L from 35.5 g/L of consumed glucose with a yield of 0.71 g D-LA / g glucose. We further modified this strain by expressing beta-glucosidase by cell surface display; the resulting strain produced D-LA at 24.4 g/L from 30 g/L of cellobiose in minimal medium, with a yield of 0.68 g D-LA / g glucose. To our knowledge, this study represents the first report of a S. pombe strain that was metabolically engineered using a CRISPR-Cas9 system, and demonstrates the possibility of engineering S. pombe for the production of value-added chemicals.