Engineering a non-model yeast for terpenoids synthesis.

Terpenoids have tremendous biological activities and are widely employed in food, healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. Using synthetic biology to product terpenoids from microbial cell factories presents a promising alternative route compared to conventional methods such as chemical synthesis or phytoextraction. The red yeast has been widely studied due to its natural production capacity of carotenoid and lipids, indicating a strong endogenous isoprene pathway with readily available metabolic intermediates. This study constructed several engineered strains of with the aim of producing different terpenoids. Monoterpene α-terpineol was produced by expressing the α-terpineol synthase from . The titer of α-terpineol was further enhanced to 0.39 mg/L by overexpressing the endogenous rate-limiting gene of the MVA pathway. Overexpression of α-farnesene synthase from in combination with MVA pathway rate-limiting gene resulted in significant increase in α-farnesene production, reaching a titer of 822 mg/L. The carotenoid degradation product β-ionone was produced at a titer of 0.87 mg/L by expressing the β-ionone synthase from . This study demonstrates the potential of as a platform host for the direct biosynthesis of various terpenoids and provides insights for further development of such platforms.