Background
Wax ester synthases (WSs) can synthesize wax esters from alcohols and fatty acyl coenzyme A thioesters. The knowledge of the preferred substrates for each WS allows the use of yeast cells for the production of wax esters that are high-value materials and can be used in a variety of industrial applications. The products of WSs include fatty acid ethyl esters, which can be directly used as biodiesel.
Results
Here, heterologous WSs derived from five different organisms were successfully expressed and evaluated for their substrate preference in
Saccharomyces cerevisiae
. We investigated the potential of the different WSs for biodiesel (that is, fatty acid ethyl esters) production in
S. cerevisiae
. All investigated WSs, from
Acinetobacter baylyi
ADP1,
Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus
DSM 8798,
Rhodococcus opacus
PD630,
Mus musculus
C57BL/6 and
Psychrobacter arcticus
273-4, have different substrate specificities, but they can all lead to the formation of biodiesel. The best biodiesel producing strain was found to be the one expressing WS from
M. hydrocarbonoclasticus
DSM 8798 that resulted in a biodiesel titer of 6.3 mg/L. To further enhance biodiesel production, acetyl coenzyme A carboxylase was up-regulated, which resulted in a 30% increase in biodiesel production.
Conclusions
Five WSs from different species were functionally expressed and their substrate preference characterized in
S. cerevisiae
, thus constructing cell factories for the production of specific kinds of wax ester. WS from
M. hydrocarbonoclasticus
showed the highest preference for ethanol compared to the other WSs, and could permit the engineered
S. cerevisiae
to produce biodiesel.