Engineering Yarrowia lipolytica for Enhanced Gastrodin Production via High-Throughput Screening and Transcriptomics-Guided Optimization

Gastrodin, the principal bioactive component of the renowned herb Gastrodia elata, is extensively utilized in medicinal drugs and nutraceuticals. This study seeks to enhance microbial production of gastrodin through high-throughput screening (HTS) and transcriptomics-guided optimization. Initially, atmospheric pressure and room temperature plasma (ARTP)-mediated mutagenesis were employed to develop a library of mutant strains. Furthermore, a transcription factor-based biosensor and a high-throughput solid-phase extraction mass spectrometry (HP-SPE-MS) were evaluated to establish an HTS method for gastrodin. Consequently, mutant strain MT8 was isolated, producing 9.8 g/L of gastrodin in YPD medium, which represents a 55.6% increase compared to the control strain. Next, key genes identified via transcriptomics were overexpressed in strain MT8, with the overexpression of gene YALI2E01737g, a gene involved in the synthesis of aromatic amino acids, significantly enhancing gastrodin production to reach 10.1 g/L. In addition, fermentation process optimization further improved gastrodin titer up to 13.1 g/L in shaking flasks. This study demonstrated the utility of HTS techniques to enhance gastrodin production and paved the way for its future industrial application.