Developments in Fatty Acid-Derived Insect Pheromone Production Using Engineered Yeasts

Abstract

The use of traditional chemical insecticides for pest control often leads to environmental pollution and a decrease in biodiversity. Recently, insect sex pheromones were applied for sustainable biocontrol of pests in fields, due to their limited adverse impacts on biodiversity and food safety compared to that of other conventional insecticides. However, the structures of insect pheromones are complex, and their chemical synthesis is not commercially feasible. As yeasts have been widely used for fatty acid-derived pheromone production in the past few years, using engineered yeasts may be promising and sustainable for the low-cost production of fatty acid-derived pheromones. The primary fatty acids produced by Saccharomyces cerevisiae and other yeasts are C16 and C18, and it is also possible to rewire/reprogram the metabolic flux for other fatty acids or fatty acid derivatives. This review summarizes the fatty acid biosynthetic pathway in S. cerevisiae and recent progress in yeast engineering in terms of metabolic engineering and synthetic biology strategies to produce insect pheromones. In the future, insect pheromones produced by yeasts might provide an eco-friendly pest control method in agricultural fields.

The impact of carbon NPs on the accumulation of storage proteins and the generation advancement of the polyphagous insect pest tobacco cutworm Spodoptera litura (Fabricius)

“…68 In mosquitoes, female sex pheromones are typically derived from fatty acids, which are a major regulator in an insect's mating behavior. 69 In a study on locusts and S. litura, silencing of the targeted gene of FAS through RNA interference resulted in lethality during ecdysis or after molting. 70,71 We obtained similar results (Fig.…”

Research advances in probiotic fermentation of Chinese herbal medicines

“…Designing and building synthetic microbiota with wild‐type probiotics, and optimizing fermentation parameters, including pH value, temperature, and incubation time, could improve the yield of bioactive natural products generated by CHM fermentation [ 141 ] (Figure 4D ). Production of terpenoids, lipids and other plant natural products by engineered yeasts has been achieved [ 142 , 143 , 144 , 145 ], and synthetic biology could design and reprogram of microorganisms to de novo produce various bioactive natural products [ 139 , 146 , 147 , 148 , 149 , 150 ]. In the future, production of CHM bioactive natural products by synthetic biology technology might be an alternative strategy for probiotic CHM fermentation, and the products can be further applied in foods, animal feed, and other industries [ 151 ].…”