(474a) Engineering a Fungal Conversion System for the Novel Production of Alkanes

Bio-derived alkanes are attractive second generation biofuels that circumvent some of the disadvantages associated with traditional biofuels such as ethanol. Engineering alkane production in yeasts relies upon the metabolic engineering of fatty acid metabolism. An attractive host for this task is Yarrowia lipolytica, an oleaginous yeast capable of growing on lignocellulosic materials and adept at producing high levels of fatty acids. Here, we report the novel heterologous production of pentane in a fungal system by engineering the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica. To accomplish this, a heterologous pentane-production pathway was synthetically assembled using plant-derived enzymes. Pentane production was optimized using environmental and genetic techniques including increasing precursor availability and employing promoter engineering and codon optimization for high enzyme expression levels. Here, we will present the results of this pathway optimization and discuss strategies for improved pentane (and other alkane) production in this strain of yeast.