Enhanced itaconic acid production in Yarrowia lipolytica via heterologous expression of a mitochondrial transporter MTT

Itaconic acid, a promising platform chemical, has been applied in many fields of industrial production. As a potential candidate for itaconic acid production, Yarrowia lipolytica possesses several innate abilities such as the tolerance of low-pH and high-shear stress, fast growth rate, cultivation flexibility, and easy for genetic manipulation. Here, Y. lipolytica Po1f which was tested to show high tolerance to itaconic acid could accumulate itaconic acid (0.363g/L) by expressing the Aspergillus terreus cis-aconitic acid decarboxylase (CAD). Then, we tried to improve the supply and transport of the immediate precursor cis-aconitic acid by overexpressing a series of genes; these results indicate that overexpression of mitochondrial cis-aconitate transporter MTT is beneficial to the itaconic acid biosynthesis in Y. lipolytica. Further culture optimization enabled 22.03g/L of itaconic acid to be produced in bioreactors, about 60-fold improvement over the initial titer, which is the highest itaconic acid production achieved at low pH by yeast reported worldwide, to data. This study demonstrates the great potential of Y. lipolytica as an industrial platform for itaconic acid production.