Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Instituto de Bioquímica Médica Leopoldo de
Meis
Molecular biology and Biochemistry of
Yeast
Monica Montero-Lomeli
February 2015

Manipulation of yeast to obtain high content of fatty acids derived from triacylglycerol for the oleochemical and industrial sectors

Main uses and applications of fatty acids food supplements pharmaceuticals rubbers
FATTY ACIDS plastics soaps cosmetics
Biofuel

Different fatty acids exist in nature and have different applications
Most common fatty acids in yeast

This knowledge can be used to growth tailored yeast for fatty acid production!!

• Tailoring yeast to increase the triacylglycerol content requires knowledge on the regulation of triacylgycerol metabolism.
• Decades of study.
• Using shortcuts!!

Triacylglycerol is deposited into lipid droplets inside the cell
Neutral lipids:
Adapted from Fujimoto et al (2008)
Triacylglycerol
Sterylester

New fluorescent based method to measure the level of
Lipid droplets
Fluorescent probe Bodipy and elisa plate reader

Screening of yeast deletion library (4928 strains) in less than one month!
Obese yeast mutant!
Slim yeast mutant!

Screening of yeast deletion library (4928 strains)
328 strains with abnormal levels of lipid droplets from which only 178 are recurrent in the literature
Recurrence
178 genes
(p<0.001)
LD related interactions
2607 genes
Known from bibliography
111 genes
Our hits
328 genes

Two interesting mutant strains
WT snf1
D
Obese yeast mutant
Slim yeast mutant

Perspectives
 Interaction with groups with knowledge on lipidomics analysis.
 Interaction with industry interested in using fatty acids derived from yeast
 Interaction with other groups interested in lipid metabolism (obesity disorders) montero@bioqmed.ufrj.br
Funding. PETROBRAS, FAPERJ, CNPq