Improvement of ATP Production with Cells of a Methylotrophic Yeast, Candida boidinii, by Genetic Engineering

Abstract

ATP production system with a methylotrophic yeast, Candida boidinii, was investigated. Adenylate kinase activity for converting AMP to ADP was revealed to be the rate-limiting step in the ATP production system with C. boidinii No. 2201. Using the recently developed transformation system for C. boidinii, ADK activity was enhanced about 5, 000-10, 000-fold in C. boidinii cells. The obtained 3-copy multiple integrant strain CT100 cells, were shown to have higher ATP productivity than the control strain, not only for ATP productivity per cells but for productivity of high catalytic cells. Thus, the ATP productivity was improved by the introduction and expression of heterologous adenylate kinase gene in C. boidinii.