Department of Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8657, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 10;11(1):5598. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-85170-0.
Methyl erythritol phosphate (MEP) is the metabolite found in the MEP pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis, which is known to be utilized by plants, algae, and bacteria. In this study, an unprecedented observation was found in the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, in which one of the chromatographic peaks was annotated as MEP when cultivated in the nitrogen limiting condition. This finding raised an interesting hypothesis of whether Y. lipolytica utilizes the MEP pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis or not, because there is no report of yeast harboring the MEP pathway. Three independent approaches were used to investigate the existence of the MEP pathway in Y. lipolytica; the spiking of the authentic standard, the MEP pathway inhibitor, and the C labeling incorporation analysis. The study suggested that the mevalonate and MEP pathways co-exist in Y. lipolytica and the nitrogen limiting condition triggers the utilization of the MEP pathway in Y. lipolytica.
甲基赤藓醇磷酸酯（MEP）是异戊烯基生物合成的 MEP 途径中的代谢产物，已知植物、藻类和细菌都利用该途径。在这项研究中，在产油酵母解脂耶氏酵母中发现了一个前所未有的现象，即在氮限制条件下培养时，其中一个色谱峰被注释为 MEP。这一发现提出了一个有趣的假设，即解脂耶氏酵母是否利用 MEP 途径进行异戊烯基生物合成，因为没有报道酵母中存在 MEP 途径。本研究采用三种独立的方法来研究解脂耶氏酵母中 MEP 途径的存在；添加真实标准品、MEP 途径抑制剂和 C 标记掺入分析。研究表明，甲羟戊酸途径和 MEP 途径在解脂耶氏酵母中共存，氮限制条件触发解脂耶氏酵母中 MEP 途径的利用。
