[2S02m] 04. Brewing, Fermentation and Food Technology - Part 1

11:30 AM - 12:00 PM JST(2:30 AM - 3:00 AM UTC)

[2Brew-06-KL] Development of yeast-based sustainable proteins using functional amino acid engineering

○Hiroshi Takagi¹ (1. Nara Institute of Science and Technology (Japan))

Keywords:

Alternative proteins,Yeast,Amino acids,Fermentation,Genome editing

Sustainable proteins, including meat substitutes, are emerging as a promising solution to the food crisis exacerbated by global population growth, climate change, and ethical concerns regarding livestock production. These proteins, derived from plants, animal cells, insects, and microorganisms, face several technical challenges that hinder their market expansion. There are three types of microbial fermentation: traditional, biomass, and precision fermentation, which is gaining attention in food-tech because of its contributions to sustainability, gastronomy, and wellbeing. Our research focuses on the metabolic regulation and physiological roles of amino acids found in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. As for traditional fermentation, we have developed mutant strains of brewing yeast that overproduce or accumulate ‘functional’ amino acids (leucine, ornithine, proline, phenylalanine, etc.) and have successfully commercialized many alcoholic beverages with enhanced flavor, addition of a healthy image, and improved fermentation ability. In terms of biomass fermentation, to increase the added value of alternative proteins, we are now improving strains of Torula yeast (Cyberlindnera jadinii also known as Candida utilis), an excellent source of protein, with high levels of functional components (amino acids, nucleic acids, fatty acids, etc.) that contribute to meat taste, nutrition, and health. We are also optimizing culture conditions to increase these contents. Our current project includes developing prototypes of sustainable proteins using yeast cells and evaluating their characteristics to extract technical issues. Moreover, for the near future precision fermentation, the current CRISPR/Cas9 systems in S. cerevisiae cannot be considered a non-genetic modification technology because it requires the introduction of Cas9 and sgRNA into yeast cells using plasmid expression systems. We recently showed that the yeast genome can be edited without plasmid expression systems by using a commercially available protein transfection reagent and chemically modified sgRNAs. Our research will substantially contribute to the current understanding of genome engineering in yeast.