Improving carotenoids production in yeast via adaptive laboratory evolution

In this study, adaptive laboratory evolution was successfully applied to improve carotenoids production in an engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae producer strain by exploiting the antioxidant properties of carotenoids. Short-term evolution experiment using periodic hydrogen peroxide shocking schemes resulted in a 3-fold increase in carotenoids production (from 6 mg/g dry cell weight to up to 18 mg/g dry cell weight). Subsequent transcriptome analysis was used to elucidate the molecular mechanisms for increased carotenoids production. Upregulation of genes related with lipid biosynthesis and mevalonate biosynthesis pathways were commonly observed in the carotenoids hyper-producers analyzed.