Biotechnological production of weak organic acids such as succinic acid is most economically advantageous when carried out at low pH. Among naturally occurring microorganisms, several bacterial strains are known to produce considerable amounts of succinic acid under anaerobic conditions but they are inefficient in performing the low-pH fermentation due to their physiological properties. We have proposed therefore a new strategy for construction of an aerobic eukaryotic producer on the basis of the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica with a deletion in the gene coding one of succinate dehydrogenase subunits. Firstly, an original in vitro mutagenesis-based approach was proposed to construct strains with Ts mutations in the Y. lipolytica SDH1 gene. These mutants were used to optimize the composition of the media for selection of transformants with the deletion in the Y. lipolytica SDH2 gene. Surprisingly, the defects of each succinate dehydrogenase subunit prevented the growth on glucose but the mutant strains grew on glycerol and produced succinate in the presence of the buffering agent CaCO(3). Subsequent selection of the strain with deleted SDH2 gene for increased viability allowed us to obtain a strain capable of accumulating succinate at the level of more than 45 g L(-1) in shaking flasks with buffering and more than 17 g L(-1) without buffering. The possible effect of the mutations on the utilization of different substrates and perspectives of constructing an industrial producer is discussed.

The cell surface display of enzymes is of great interest because of its simplified purification stage and the possibility for recycling in industrial processes. In this study, we have focused on the cell wall immobilization of Yarrowia lipolytica Lip2 protein--an enzyme that has a wide technological application. By genome analysis of Y. lipolytica in addition to already characterized Ylcwp1, we identified five putative open reading frames encoding glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins. Lip2 translation fusion with the carboxyl termini of these proteins revealed that all proteins were capable of immobilizing lipase in active form on the cell surface. The highest level of cell-bound lipase activity was achieved using C-domains encoded by YlCWP1, YlCWP3 (YALI0D27214g) and YlCWP6 (YALI0F18282g) comprising 16,173 ± 1,800, 18,785 ± 1,130 and 17,700 ± 2,101 U/g dry cells, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, these results significantly exceed the highest cell-bound lipase activity previously reported for engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris strains. Furthermore, the lyophilized biomass retained the activity and was robust to collecting/resuspending procedures. Nevertheless, in most cases, a substantial amount of lipase activity was also found in the growth medium. Further work will be necessary to better understand the nature of this phenomenon.

Bio-based succinate is still a matter of special emphasis in biotechnology and adjacent research areas. The vast majority of natural and engineered producers are bacterial strains that accumulate succinate under anaerobic conditions. Recently, we succeeded in obtaining an aerobic yeast strain capable of producing succinic acid at low pH. Herein, we discuss some difficulties and advantages of microbial pathways producing "succinic acid" rather than "succinate." It was concluded that the peculiar properties of the constructed yeast strain could be clarified in view of a distorted energy balance. There is evidence that in an acidic environment, the majority of the cellular energy available as ATP will be spent for proton and anion efflux. The decreased ATP:ADP ratio could essentially reduce the growth rate or even completely inhibit growth. In the same way, the preference of this elaborated strain for certain carbon sources could be explained in terms of energy balance. Nevertheless, the opportunity to exclude alkali and mineral acid waste from microbial succinate production seems environmentally friendly and cost-effective.

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