Multi-modular engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for high-titre production of tyrosol and salidroside

Tyrosol and its glycosylated product salidroside are important ingredients in pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and cosmetics. Despite the ability of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to naturally synthesize tyrosol, high yield from de novo synthesis remains a challenge. Here, we used metabolic engineering strategies to construct S. cerevisiae strains for high-level production of tyrosol and salidroside from glucose. First, tyrosol production was unlocked from feedback inhibition. Then, transketolase and ribose-5-phosphate ketol-isomerase were overexpressed to balance the supply of precursors. Next, chorismate synthase and chorismate mutase were overexpressed to maximize the aromatic amino acid flux towards tyrosol synthesis. Finally, the competing pathway was knocked out to further direct the carbon flux into tyrosol synthesis. Through a combination of these interventions, tyrosol titres reached 702.30 ± 0.41 mg l⁻¹ in shake flasks, which were approximately 26-fold greater than that of the WT strain. RrU8GT33 from Rhodiola rosea was also applied to cells and maximized salidroside production from tyrosol in S. cerevisiae. Salidroside titres of 1575.45 ± 19.35 mg l⁻¹ were accomplished in shake flasks. Furthermore, titres of 9.90 ± 0.06 g l⁻¹ of tyrosol and 26.55 ± 0.43 g l⁻¹ of salidroside were achieved in 5 l bioreactors, both are the highest titres reported to date. The synergistic engineering strategies presented in this study could be further applied to increase the production of high value-added aromatic compounds derived from the aromatic amino acid biosynthesis pathway in S. cerevisiae.     

Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for hydroxytyrosol overproduction directly from glucose

Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is one of the most powerful dietary antioxidants with numerous applications in different areas, including cosmetics, nutraceuticals and food. In the present work, heterologous hydroxylase complex HpaBC from Escherichia coli was integrated into the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome in multiple copies. HT productivity was increased by redirecting the metabolic flux towards tyrosol synthesis to avoid exogenous tyrosol or tyrosine supplementation. After evaluating the potential of our selected strain as an HT producer from glucose, we adjusted the medium composition for HT production. The combination of the selected modifications in our engineered strain, combined with culture conditions optimization, resulted in a titre of approximately 375 mg l⁻¹ of HT obtained from shake-flask fermentation using a minimal synthetic-defined medium with 160 g l⁻¹ glucose as the sole carbon source. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest HT concentration produced by an engineered S. cerevisiae strain.     

Improved polyhydroxybutyrate production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae through the use of the phosphoketolase pathway

The metabolic pathways of the central carbon metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae are well studied and consequently S. cerevisiae has been widely evaluated as a cell factory for many industrial biological products. In this study, we investigated the effect of engineering the supply of precursor, acetyl‐CoA, and cofactor, NADPH, on the biosynthesis of the bacterial biopolymer polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), in S. cerevisiae. Supply of acetyl‐CoA was engineered by over‐expression of genes from the ethanol degradation pathway or by heterologous expression of the phophoketolase pathway from Aspergillus nidulans. Both strategies improved the production of PHB. Integration of gapN encoding NADP⁺‐dependent glyceraldehyde‐3‐phosphate dehydrogenase from Streptococcus mutans into the genome enabled an increased supply of NADPH resulting in a decrease in glycerol production and increased production of PHB. The strategy that resulted in the highest PHB production after 100 h was with a strain harboring the phosphoketolase pathway to supply acetyl‐CoA without the need of increased NADPH production by gapN integration. The results from this study imply that during the exponential growth on glucose, the biosynthesis of PHB in S. cerevisiae is likely to be limited by the supply of NADPH whereas supply of acetyl‐CoA as precursor plays a more important role in the improvement of PHB production during growth on ethanol. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2013; 110: 2216–2224. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Auxin-mediated induction of GAL promoters by conditional degradation of Mig1p improves sesquiterpene production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae with engineered acetyl-CoA synthesis

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae uses the pyruvate dehydrogenase-bypass for acetyl-CoA biosynthesis. This relatively inefficient pathway limits production potential for acetyl-CoA-derived biochemical due to carbon loss and the cost of two high-energy phosphate bonds per molecule of acetyl-CoA. Here, we attempted to improve acetyl-CoA production efficiency by introducing heterologous acetylating aldehyde dehydrogenase and phosphoketolase pathways for acetyl-CoA synthesis to enhance production of the sesquiterpene trans-nerolidol. In addition, we introduced auxin-mediated degradation of the glucose-dependent repressor Mig1p to allow induced expression of GAL promoters on glucose so that production potential on glucose could be examined. The novel genes that we used to reconstruct the heterologous acetyl-CoA pathways did not sufficiently complement the loss of endogenous acetyl-CoA pathways, indicating that superior heterologous enzymes are necessary to establish fully functional synthetic acetyl-CoA pathways and properly explore their potential for nerolidol synthesis. Notwithstanding this, nerolidol production was improved twofold to a titre of ˜ 900 mg l⁻¹ in flask cultivation using a combination of heterologous acetyl-CoA pathways and Mig1p degradation. Conditional Mig1p depletion is presented as a valuable strategy to improve the productivities in the strains engineered with GAL promoters-controlled pathways when growing on glucose.     

Comparative Proteomics Analysis of Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae with Enhanced Biofuel Precursor Production

The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae was metabolically modified for enhanced biofuel precursor production by knocking out genes encoding mitochondrial isocitrate dehydrogenase and over-expression of a heterologous ATP-citrate lyase. A comparative iTRAQ-coupled 2D LC-MS/MS analysis was performed to obtain a global overview of ubiquitous protein expression changes in S. cerevisiae engineered strains. More than 300 proteins were identified. Among these proteins, 37 were found differentially expressed in engineered strains and they were classified into specific categories based on their enzyme functions. Most of the proteins involved in glycolytic and pyruvate branch-point pathways were found to be up-regulated and the proteins involved in respiration and glyoxylate pathway were however found to be down-regulated in engineered strains. Moreover, the metabolic modification of S. cerevisiae cells resulted in a number of up-regulated proteins involved in stress response and differentially expressed proteins involved in amino acid metabolism and protein biosynthesis pathways. These LC-MS/MS based proteomics analysis results not only offered extensive information in identifying potential protein-protein interactions, signal pathways and ubiquitous cellular changes elicited by the engineered pathways, but also provided a meaningful biological information platform serving further modification of yeast cells for enhanced biofuel production.     

Xylose assimilation enhances the production of isobutanol in engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Bioconversion of xylose—the second most abundant sugar in nature—into high-value fuels and chemicals by engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been a long-term goal of the metabolic engineering community. Although most efforts have heavily focused on the production of ethanol by engineered S. cerevisiae, yields and productivities of ethanol produced from xylose have remained inferior as compared with ethanol produced from glucose. However, this entrenched focus on ethanol has concealed the fact that many aspects of xylose metabolism favor the production of nonethanol products. Through reduced overall metabolic flux, a more respiratory nature of consumption, and evading glucose signaling pathways, the bioconversion of xylose can be more amenable to redirecting flux away from ethanol towards the desired target product. In this report, we show that coupling xylose consumption via the oxidoreductive pathway with a mitochondrially-targeted isobutanol biosynthesis pathway leads to enhanced product yields and titers as compared to cultures utilizing glucose or galactose as a carbon source. Through the optimization of culture conditions, we achieve 2.6 g/L of isobutanol in the fed-batch flask and bioreactor fermentations. These results suggest that there may be synergistic benefits of coupling xylose assimilation with the production of nonethanol value-added products.     

Functional replacement of isoprenoid pathways in Rhodobacter sphaeroides

Advances in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering have proven the potential of introducing metabolic by-passes within cell factories. These pathways can provide a more efficient alternative to endogenous counterparts due to their insensitivity to host's regulatory mechanisms. In this work, we replaced the endogenous essential 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway for isoprenoid biosynthesis in the industrially relevant bacterium Rhodobacter sphaeroides by an orthogonal metabolic route. The native 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathway was successfully replaced by a heterologous mevalonate (MVA) pathway from a related bacterium. The functional replacement was confirmed by analysis of the reporter molecule amorpha-4,11-diene after cultivation with [4-¹³C]glucose. The engineered R. sphaeroides strain relying exclusively on the MVA pathway was completely functional in conditions for sesquiterpene production and, upon increased expression of the MVA enzymes, it reached even higher sesquiterpene yields than the control strain coexpressing both MEP and MVA modules. This work represents an example where substitution of an essential biochemical pathway by an alternative, heterologous pathway leads to enhanced biosynthetic performance.     

Engineering Salidroside Biosynthetic Pathway in Hairy Root Cultures of Rhodiola crenulata Based on Metabolic Characterization of Tyrosine Decarboxylase

Tyrosine decarboxylase initializes salidroside biosynthesis. Metabolic characterization of tyrosine decarboxylase gene from Rhodiola crenulata (RcTYDC) revealed that it played an important role in salidroside biosynthesis. Recombinant 53 kDa RcTYDC converted tyrosine into tyramine. RcTYDC gene expression was induced coordinately with the expression of RcUDPGT (the last gene involved in salidroside biosynthesis) in SA/MeJA treatment; the expression of RcTYDC and RcUDPGT was dramatically upregulated by SA, respectively 49 folds and 36 folds compared with control. MeJA also significantly increased the expression of RcTYDC and RcUDPGT in hairy root cultures. The tissue profile of RcTYDC and RcUDPGT was highly similar: highest expression levels found in stems, higher expression levels in leaves than in flowers and roots. The gene expressing levels were consistent with the salidroside accumulation levels. This strongly suggested that RcTYDC played an important role in salidroside biosynthesis in R. crenulata. Finally, RcTYDC was used to engineering salidroside biosynthetic pathway in R. crenulata hairy roots via metabolic engineering strategy of overexpression. All the transgenic lines showed much higher expression levels of RcTYDC than non-transgenic one. The transgenic lines produced tyramine, tyrosol and salidroside at higher levels, which were respectively 3.21–6.84, 1.50–2.19 and 1.27–3.47 folds compared with the corresponding compound in non-transgenic lines. In conclusion, RcTYDC overexpression promoted tyramine biosynthesis that facilitated more metabolic flux flowing toward the downstream pathway and as a result, the intermediate tyrosol was accumulated more that led to the increased production of the end-product salidroside.     

Redirection of the Glycolytic Flux Enhances Isoprenoid Production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Sufficient supply of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is a prerequisite of the overproduction of isoprenoids and related bioproducts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Although S. cerevisiae highly depends on the oxidative pentose phosphate (PP) pathway to produce NADPH, its metabolic flux toward the oxidative PP pathway is limited due to the rigid glycolysis flux. To maximize NADPH supply for the isoprenoid production in yeast, upper glycolytic metabolic fluxes are reduced by introducing mutations into phosphofructokinase (PFK) along with overexpression of ZWF1 encoding glucose‐6‐phosphate (G6P) dehydrogenase. The PFK mutations (Pfk1 S724D and Pfk2 S718D) result in less glycerol production and more accumulation of G6P, which is a gateway metabolite toward the oxidative PP pathway. When combined with the PFK mutations, overexpression of ZWF1 caused substantial increases of [NADPH]/[NADP⁺] ratios whereas the effect of ZWF1 overexpression alone in the wild‐type strain is not noticeable. Also, the introduction of ZWF1 overexpression and the PFK mutations into engineered yeast overexpressing acetyl‐CoA C‐acetyltransferase (ERG10), truncated HMG‐CoA reductase isozyme 1 (tHMG1), and amorphadiene synthase (ADS) leads to a titer of 497 mg L^–1 of amorphadiene (3.7‐fold over the parental strain). These results suggest that perturbation of upper glycolytic fluxes, in addition to ZWF1 overexpression, is necessary for efficient NADPH supply through the oxidative PP pathway and enhanced production of isoprenoids by engineered S. cerevisiae.     

Highly efficient rDNA-mediated multicopy integration based on the dynamic balance of rDNA in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae strains are good cell factories, and developing additional genetic manipulation tools will accelerate construction of metabolically engineered strains. Highly repetitive rDNA sequence is one of two main sites typically used for multicopy integration of genes. Here, we developed a simple and high-efficiency strategy for rDNA-mediated multicopy gene integration based on the dynamic balance of rDNA in S. cerevisiae. rDNA copy number was decreased by pre-treatment with hydroxyurea (HU). Then, heterologous genes were integrated into the rDNA sequence. The copy number of the integrated heterologous genes increased along with restoration of the copy number of rDNA. Our results demonstrated that HU pre-treatment doubled the number of integrated gene copies; moreover, compared with removing HU stress during transformation, removing HU stress after selection of transformants had a higher probability of resulting in transformants with high-copy integrated genes. Finally, we integrated 18.0 copies of the xylose isomerase gene into the S. cerevisiae genome in a single step. This novel rDNA-mediated multicopy genome integration strategy provides a convenient and efficient tool for further metabolic engineering of S. cerevisiae.     

代谢工程改造酿酒酵母提高法尼醇产量

【目的】法尼醇(FOH,C_(15)H_(26)O)是一种具有芳香气味的非环状倍半萜醇,被广泛应用于化妆品和医学药物的工业化生产,也可作为航空燃料的理想替代品。具有食品级安全性的酿酒酵母细胞能够合成内源性法尼醇,但其产量很低,无法满足工业生产的需要。因此,需要采用代谢工程手段,改造法尼醇合成途径,以有效提高法尼醇在酿酒酵母中的产量。【方法】以酿酒酵母工业菌株CEN.PK2-1D为底盘细胞,强化甲羟戊酸途径中关键酶的表达水平和弱化麦角固醇合成分支途径,以提高法尼醇合成所需的直接前体物质法尼基焦磷酸(FPP);并分别表达催化FPP合成法尼醇的五种内源磷酸酶和两种异源合酶,筛选能高效合成法尼醇的磷酸酶或合酶。【结果】通过在CEN.PK2-1D(法尼醇产量0.1mg/L)中强化表达甲羟戊酸途径中截短形式的HMG-CoA还原酶(tHMGR1)和FPP合酶(ERG20),使法尼醇产量提高约50.8倍,达到5.08 mg/L;使用HXT1启动子替换鲨烯合酶编码基因ERG9启动子以下调其表达水平,使法尼醇产量进一步提升47.1倍,达到239.17 mg/L。在此基础上,筛选发现,表达酿酒酵母内源性磷酸酶PAH1时,获得最高产量法尼醇,达到393.13 mg/L。【结论】采用代谢工程策略对酿酒酵母法尼醇合成途径进行改造,有效提高法尼醇产量至393.13 mg/L,为目前报道的在酿酒酵母中摇瓶培养条件下的最高产量。     

群体感应动态调控促进大肠杆菌合成酪醇

酪醇是一种多酚类天然产物,广泛应用于化工、医药和食品等领域。目前大肠杆菌(Escherichia coli)从头合成酪醇存在发酵菌体密度低和产量低等问题。为此,本研究将前期获得苯丙酮酸脱羧酶突变体ARO10F138L/D218G与不同来源的醇脱氢酶融合表达,最优组合ARO10F138L/D218G-L-YahK酪醇产量达到1.09 g/L。为进一步提高酪醇产量,敲除了4-羟基苯乙酸竞争途径关键基因feaB,使酪醇产量提高了21.15%,达到1.26g/L。针对酪醇发酵菌体密度低的问题,通过群体感应系统动态调控酪醇合成途径,减轻酪醇对底盘细胞的毒性作用,缓解生长抑制,使其产量提高了33.82%,达到1.74 g/L。在2 L发酵罐中,群体感应动态调控工程菌TRFQ5的酪醇产量达到4.22g/L,OD600值达到42.88,分别较静态诱导表达工程菌TRF5提高了38.58%和43.62%。本研究应用基因敲除技术,阻断了酪醇合成竞争途径;同时结合群体感应动态调控策略,减轻了酪醇毒性对底盘细胞的生长抑制,从而有效地提高了酪醇产量。本研究对其他高毒性化学品的生物合成具有良好的借鉴和应用价值。     

The role of peroxisomes in xylose alcoholic fermentation in the engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Xylose is a second‐most abounded sugar after glucose in lignocellulosic hydrolysates and should be efficiently fermented for economically viable second‐generation ethanol production. Despite significant progress in metabolic and evolutionary engineering, xylose fermentation rate of recombinant Saccharomyces cerevisiae remains lower than that for glucose. Our recent study demonstrated that peroxisome‐deficient cells of yeast Ogataea polymorpha showed a decrease in ethanol production from xylose. In this work, we have studied the role of peroxisomes in xylose alcoholic fermentation in the engineered xylose‐utilizing strain of S. cerevisiae. It was shown that peroxisome‐less pex3Δ mutant possessed 1.5‐fold decrease of ethanol production from xylose. We hypothesized that peroxisomal catalase Cta1 may have importance for hydrogen peroxide, the important component of reactive oxygen species, detoxification during xylose alcoholic fermentation. It was clearly shown that CTA1 deletion impaired ethanol production from xylose. It was found that enhancing the peroxisome population by modulation the peroxisomal biogenesis by overexpression of PEX34 activates xylose alcoholic fermentation.     

Using regulatory information to manipulate glycerol metabolism in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Metabolic engineering has emerged as an attractive alternative to random mutagenesis and screening to design cell factories for industrial fermentation processes. The design of metabolic networks has been realized by gene deletions or strong overexpression of heterologous genes. There is an increasing body of evidence that indicates complete inactivation of native genes and high-level activity of heterologous enzymes may be deleterious to the cell. To moderately implement their expression, genes of interest are expressed under the control of promoters with different strengths. Constructing a promoter library is labor-intensive and requires precise quantification of the promoter strength. However, when the mechanisms of pathway regulation are known, it is possible to exploit this information to effect genetic changes efficiently. We report the implementation of this concept to reducing glycerol production during aerobic growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Glycerol is produced to dispose excess cytosolic reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), and the regulating step in the pathway is mediated by glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (encoded by GPD1 and GPD2 genes). We expressed NADH oxidase in S. cerevisiae under the control of the GPD2 promoter to modulate the decrease in cytosolic NADH to the right level where the heterologous enzyme does not compete with oxidative phosphorylation while at the same time, decreasing glycerol production. This metabolic design resulted in substantially decreasing glycerol production and indeed, the excess carbon was redirected to biomass, resulting in a 14% increase in the specific growth rate. We believe that such strategies are more efficient than conventional methods and will find applications in bioprocesses.     

Metabolic engineering of Escherichia coli for the production of polylactic acid and its copolymers

Polylactic acid (PLA) is a promising biomass‐derived polymer, but is currently synthesized by a two‐step process: fermentative production of lactic acid followed by chemical polymerization. Here we report production of PLA homopolymer and its copolymer, poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐lactate), P(3HB‐co‐LA), by direct fermentation of metabolically engineered Escherichia coli. As shown in an accompanying paper, introduction of the heterologous metabolic pathways involving engineered propionate CoA‐transferase and polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthase for the efficient generation of lactyl‐CoA and incorporation of lactyl‐CoA into the polymer, respectively, allowed synthesis of PLA and P(3HB‐co‐LA) in E. coli, but at relatively low efficiency. In this study, the metabolic pathways of E. coli were further engineered by knocking out the ackA, ppc, and adhE genes and by replacing the promoters of the ldhA and acs genes with the trc promoter based on in silico genome‐scale metabolic flux analysis in addition to rational approach. Using this engineered strain, PLA homopolymer could be produced up to 11 wt% from glucose. Also, P(3HB‐co‐LA) copolymers containing 55–86 mol% lactate could be produced up to 56 wt% from glucose and 3HB. P(3HB‐co‐LA) copolymers containing up to 70 mol% lactate could be produced to 46 wt% from glucose alone by introducing the Cupriavidus necator β‐ketothiolase and acetoacetyl‐CoA reductase genes. Thus, the strategy of combined metabolic engineering and enzyme engineering allowed efficient bio‐based one‐step production of PLA and its copolymers. This strategy should be generally useful for developing other engineered organisms capable of producing various unnatural polymers by direct fermentation from renewable resources. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2010; 105: 161–171. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Efficient production of 2,3-butanediol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by eliminating ethanol and glycerol production and redox rebalancing

2,3-Butanediol is a promising valuable chemical that can be used in various areas as a liquid fuel and a platform chemical. Here, 2,3-butanediol production in Saccharomyces cerevisiae was improved stepwise by eliminating byproduct formation and redox rebalancing. By introducing heterologous 2,3-butanediol biosynthetic pathway and deleting competing pathways producing ethanol and glycerol, metabolic flux was successfully redirected to 2,3-butanediol. In addition, the resulting redox cofactor imbalance was restored by overexpressing water-forming NADH oxidase (NoxE) from Lactococcus lactis. In a flask fed-batch fermentation with optimized conditions, the engineered adh1Δadh2Δadh3Δadh4Δadh5Δgpd1Δgpd2Δ strain overexpressing Bacillus subtilis α-acetolactate synthase (AlsS) and α-acetolactate decarboxylase (AlsD), S. cerevisiae 2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase (Bdh1), and L. lactis NoxE from a single multigene-expression vector produced 72.9 g/L 2,3-butanediol with the highest yield (0.41 g/g glucose) and productivity (1.43 g/(L·h)) ever reported in S. cerevisiae.     

Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for the production of triacetic acid lactone

Biobased chemicals have become attractive replacements for their fossil-fuel counterparts. Recent studies have shown triacetic acid lactone (TAL) to be a promising candidate, capable of undergoing chemical conversion to sorbic acid and other valuable intermediates. In this study, Saccharomyces cerevisiae was engineered for the high-level production of TAL by overexpression of the Gerbera hybrida 2-pyrone synthase (2-PS) and systematic engineering of the yeast metabolic pathways. Pathway analysis and a computational approach were employed to target increases in cofactor and precursor pools to improve TAL synthesis. The pathways engineered include those for energy storage and generation, pentose biosynthesis, gluconeogenesis, lipid biosynthesis and regulation, cofactor transport, and fermentative capacity. Seventeen genes were selected for disruption and independently screened for their effect on TAL production; combinations of knockouts were then evaluated. A combination of the pathway engineering and optimal culture parameters led to a 37-fold increase in titer to 2.2 g/L and a 50-fold increase in yield to 0.13 (g/g glucose). These values are the highest reported in the literature, and provide a 3-fold improvement in yield over previous reports using S. cerevisiae. Identification of these metabolic bottlenecks provides a strategy for overproduction of other acetyl-CoA-dependent products in yeast.     

Engineering cytosolic acetyl-coenzyme A supply in Saccharomyces cerevisiae: Pathway stoichiometry,free-energy conservation and redox-cofactor balancing

Saccharomyces cerevisiae is an important industrial cell factory and an attractive experimental model for evaluating novel metabolic engineering strategies. Many current and potential products of this yeast require acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) as a precursor and pathways towards these products are generally expressed in its cytosol. The native S. cerevisiae pathway for production of cytosolic acetyl-CoA consumes 2 ATP equivalents in the acetyl-CoA synthetase reaction. Catabolism of additional sugar substrate, which may be required to generate this ATP, negatively affects product yields. Here, we review alternative pathways that can be engineered into yeast to optimize supply of cytosolic acetyl-CoA as a precursor for product formation. Particular attention is paid to reaction stoichiometry, free-energy conservation and redox-cofactor balancing of alternative pathways for acetyl-CoA synthesis from glucose. A theoretical analysis of maximally attainable yields on glucose of four compounds (n-butanol, citric acid, palmitic acid and farnesene) showed a strong product dependency of the optimal pathway configuration for acetyl-CoA synthesis. Moreover, this analysis showed that combination of different acetyl-CoA production pathways may be required to achieve optimal product yields. This review underlines that an integral analysis of energy coupling and redox-cofactor balancing in precursor-supply and product-formation pathways is crucial for the design of efficient cell factories.