Project proposals > Project details
Application of advanced synthetic biology to build an efficient yeast cell factory producing health-promoting glucosinolates.
Main area: | Biotechnology |
Target group: | Biology-Biotechnology, Other Education |
Educational level: | Master, Bachelor |
Project description: Background Recent successful synthetic biology applications have demonstrated the incredible potential of microbial cell factories for production of high-value chemicals. The genetic ‘parts’ required for glucosinolate engineering are known and the feasibility of engineering them has been demonstrated in both E. coli and yeast. Our focus is now on unleashing the potential and breaking the yield barrier by increasing the flux through the pathways. Your task Specific tasks - Characterization of two yeast strains containing either a single copy or six copies of the biosynthetic pathway producing benzyl glucosinolate - Targeted proteomics will be applied to investigate how the gene copy number affects protein levels in the yeast cells. - An ‘omics approach will be employed to identify and test specific genetic targets for global strain optimization. Work environment For further information, do not hesitate to send an email to either Professor Barbara Halkier (bah@plen.ku.dk) or PhD student William Thomas Wajn (wtw@plen.ku.dk). References Ravikumar, A., Arzumanyan, G. A., Obadi, M. K. A., Javanpour, A. A., & Liu, C. C. (2018). Scalable, Continuous Evolution of Genes at Mutation Rates above Genomic Error Thresholds. Cell, 175(7), 1946-1957.e13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2018.10.021 Strucko, T., Buron, L. D., Jarczynska, Z. D., Nødvig, C. S., Mølgaard, L., Halkier, B. A., & Mortensen, U. H. (2017). CASCADE, a platform for controlled gene amplification for high, tunable and selection-free gene expression in yeast. Scientific Reports, 7(January), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep41431 | |
Methods used: | Heterologous gene expression in yeast, LC-MS on selected metabolites, yeast genotyping, sequencing, protein extraction and digestion, targeted proteomics, OrthoRep, strain optimization and basic molecular biology tools. |
Keywords: | Synthetic biology, yeast engineering, biotechnology, microbial cell factory, strain optimization |
Project home page: | https://dynamo.ku.dk/ |
Supervisor(s): | Main supervisor: Barbara Ann Halkier, Co-supervisor: William Thomas Wajn |
Email: | bah@plen.ku.dk |