Building Triketide α-Pyrone-Producing Yeast Platform Using Heterologous Expression of Sporopollenin Biosynthetic Genes.

Sporopollenin is a poorly characterized mixed aliphatic and aromatic polymer with ester and ether linkages. Recent studies have reported that α-pyrone polyketide compounds generated by Arabidopsis thaliana, polyketide synthase A (PKSA) and tetraketide α-pyrone reductase 1 (TKPR1), are previously unknown sporopollenin precursors. Here, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was introduced to test potential sporopollenin biosynthetic pathways in vivo. A PKSA/TKPR1 dual expressor was generated and various chain-length alkyl α-pyrones were identified by GC-MS. The growth rate of the strain containing PKSA/TKPR1 appeared normal. These results indicate that PKSA/TKPR1-expressing yeast would be a starting platform to investigate in vivo sporopollenin metabolism.