Abstract
Oleaginous yeasts are promising candidates as single cell oil (SCO)
platforms to meet energy demand due to their high growth rate, easy
scaling and the possibility of being cultivated in culture media based
on lignocellulosic biomass. The oleaginous yeast Papiliotrema
laurentii UFV-1 is able to reach high lipid contents in short periods,
besides its composition of fatty acids is suitable in terms of quality
standards required for biodiesel production. However, little is known
about the regulation of its metabolism. We present here the first
genome-scale metabolic reconstruction of P. laurentii, papla-GEM.
The reconstruction was based on homology to another oleaginous yeast and
the model was subjected to intensive manual curation throughout the
reconstruction stages to find out the metabolic specificities of this
yeast. The final model includes 764 genes, 2447 reactions and 2112
metabolites, and its biomass equation is based on direct measurements of
all major biomass components. The validation step was performed using
experimental data obtained in this work, and simulation results
evaluated the growth and lipid accumulation physiology of P.
laurentii. Therefore, the papla-GEM will lead to a better understanding
of the metabolic capabilities of P. laurentii and thus will be
useful in systems metabolic engineering approaches.