Applied systems biology - vanillin production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Vanillin is the most important aroma compound based on market value, and natural vanillin is extracted from the cured seed pods of the Vanilla orchid. Most of the world’s vanillin, however, is obtained by chemical synthesis from petrochemicals or wood pulp lignins. As an alternative, de novo biosynthesis of vanillin in baker’s yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was recently demonstrated by successfully introducing the metabolic pathway for vanillin production in yeast. Nevertheless, the amount of vanillin produced in this S. cerevisiae strain is insufficient for commercial production and improvements need to be done. We have introduced the genes necessary for vanillin production in an identical manner in two different yeast strains S288c and CEN.PK,where comprehensive – omics datasets are available, hence, allowing vanillin production in the two strain backgrounds to be evaluated and compared in a systems biology setting.