An oleaginous yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides is a non-model fungus of interest due to its ability to produce carotenoids and accumulate lipids. Carotenoids are naturally occurring pigments which have many industrial applications, and lipids are extracted and converted into biodiesel or other useful products. The high flux in lipid and carotenoid biosynthetic pathways, as well as its known tolerance of inhibitory compounds in lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate, makes R. toruloides a promising platform organism for producing biofuels and value-added chemicals from lignocellulosic biomass-derived carbon sources. A few genomes of R. toruloides have been recently sequenced, but there is still limited knowledge about genetics and metabolism of R. toruloides compared to model organisms. In this work, enabled by the resources of the Joint Genome Institute (JGI), we study the genomics and transcriptomics of R. toruloides to investigate the biofuel production from carbon sources that are found in lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate. We analyze whole genome resequencing data for biofuel producing R. toruloides strains to identify the genetic basis of improved biofuel production. We also analyze the transcriptomic response of R. toruloides to elucidate metabolic pathways involved in degradation of depolymerized polysaccharides and lignin. From this study, we discover genes potentially involved in the degradation of depolymerized lignin, and identify useful genetic parts that can be used to further engineer R. toruloides to improve biofuel production and carbon utilization.

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of Rhodosporidium toruloides producing biofuels from depolymerized polysaccharides and lignin

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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