Denovo production of resveratrol by engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae W303-1a using pretreated Gracilaria corticata extracts.

Objective: Assembly and construction of resveratrol production pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae for denovo production of resveratrol using seaweed extract as fermentation medium.

Results: Genes involved in the production of resveratrol from tyrosine pathway, tyrosine ammonia lyase (FTAL) gene from Flavobacterium johnsoniae (FjTAL), the 4-coumarate:CoA ligase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana (4CL1) and the stilbene synthase gene from Vitis vinifera (VvSTS) were introduced into low copy, high copy and integrative vector and transformed into S. cerevisiae W303-1a. The resulting strains W303-1a/pARS-res5, W303-1a/2µ-res1 and W303-1a/IntUra-res9 produced a level of 2.39 ± 0.01, 3.33 ± 0.03 and 8.34 ± 0.03 mg resveratrol l^-1 respectively. CRISPR mediated integration at the δ locus resulted in 17.13 ± 1.1 mg resveratrol l^-1. Gracilaria corticata extract was tested as a substrate for the growth of transformant to produce resveratrol. The strain produced a comparable level, 13.6 ± 0.54 mg resveratrol l^-1 when grown in seaweed extract medium.

Conclusions: The strain W303-1a/IntδC-res1 utilized Gracillaria hydrolysate and produced 13.6 ± 0.54 mg resveratrol l^-1 and further investigations are being carried out focusing on pathway engineering and optimization of process parameters to enhance resveratrol yield.