Heterologous Expression of Two Malate Transporters From an Oleaginous Fungus Improved the Lipid Accumulation in .

The fungus, , is of great interest for microbial lipids, because of its ability to accumulate intracellular lipid using various carbon sources. The biosynthesis of fatty acid requires the reducing power NADPH, and acetyl-CoA, which is produced by the cleavage of citrate in cytosol. In this study, we employed different strategies to increase lipid accumulation in the low lipid-producing fungi via metabolic engineering technology. Hence, we constructed the engineered strain of CBS 277.49 by using malate transporter () and 2-oxoglutarate: malate antiporter ( from WJ11. In comparison with the control strain, the lipid content of the overexpressed strains of and genes were increased by 24.6 and 33.8%, respectively. These results showed that and can affect the distribution of malate in mitochondria and cytosol, provide the substrates for the synthesis of citrate in the mitochondria, and accelerate the transfer of citrate from mitochondria to cytosol, which could play a significant regulatory role in fatty acid synthesis leading to lipids over accumulation.