Genomic and phenotypic characterization of a refactored xylose utilizing Saccharomyces cerevisiae for lignocellulosic biofuels/biochemicals production

To understand the mechanisms of enhanced xylose metabolism of XUSE, we reported transcriptome analysis of XUS (rationally engineered strain) and XUSE (evolved XUS strain) grown on xylose by performing RNA-sequencing. Compared with XUS, XUSE showed significantly different gene expression landscape with 463 up-regulated and 675 down-regulated genes (>2-fold, p-value<0.05). While the genes involved in non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway, such as TKL1, TKL2 and TAL1, were down-regulated in XUSE, it shows the decreased transcriptional patterns of a number of genes encoding TCA cycle and respiratory enzymes. Also, the genes involved in the cellular metal ion regulation and sugar transporters showed significantly changed expression levels in XUSE. This study shows the gene expression landscape of XUSE revealing engineering strategies for the enhanced xylose metabolism in S. cerevisiae. Transcriptional landscape of evolved xylose fermenting strains harboring xylose isomerase pathway was generated by RNA-sequencing