Metabolic construction strategies for direct methanol utilization in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

The aim of this study was to metabolically construct Saccharomyces cerevisiae for achievement of direct methanol utilization and value added product (mainly pyruvate) production. After successful integration of methanol oxidation pathway originated from Pichia pastoris into the chromosome of S. cerevisiae, the recombinant showed 1.04 g/L consumption of methanol and 3.13% increase of cell growth (OD600) when using methanol as the sole carbon source. Moreover, 0.26 g/L of pyruvate was detected in the fermentation broth. The supplementation of 1 g/L yeast extract could further improve cell growth with increase of 11.70% and methanol consumption to 2.35 g/L. This represents the first genetically modified non-methylotrophic eukaryotic microbe for direct methanol utilization and would be of great value concerning the development of biotechnological processes.