We isolated a new strain of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, 35a14, from banana stems in Okinawa. This strain did not belong to any industrial yeast groups in a phylogenetic tree and produced high levels of alcohol. Furthermore, awamori, an Okinawa's traditional distilled alcoholic beverage, brewed with an l-leucine overproducing mutant derived from 35a14 showed a high concentration of isoamyl acetate.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBranched-chain higher alcohols (BCHAs), or fusel alcohols, including isobutanol, isoamyl alcohol, and active amyl alcohol, are useful compounds in several industries. The yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae can synthesize these compounds via the metabolic pathways of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). Branched-chain amino acid aminotransaminases (BCATs) are the key enzymes for BCHA production via the Ehrlich pathway of BCAAs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBranched-chain amino acid aminotransferase (BCAT) catalyzes bidirectional transamination in the cell between branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs; valine, leucine, and isoleucine) and branched-chain α-keto acids (BCKAs; α-ketoisovalerate, α-ketoisocaproate, and α-keto-β-methylvalerate). Eukaryotic cells contain two types of paralogous BCATs: mitochondrial BCAT (BCATm) and cytosolic BCAT (BCATc). Both isozymes have identical enzymatic functions, so they have long been considered to perform similar physiological functions in the cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF