The Overexpression of Results in Enhanced Erythritol Synthesis from Glycerol by the Yeast .

The unconventional yeast is used to produce erythritol from glycerol. In this study, the role of the erythrose reductase (ER) homolog in erythritol synthesis was analyzed. The deletion of the gene resulted in an increased production of mannitol (308%) and arabitol (204%) before the utilization of these polyols began. The strain overexpressing the gene was used to increase the erythritol yield from glycerol as a sole carbon source in batch cultures, resulting in a yield of 0.4 g/g. The specific consumption rate (qs) increased from 5.83 g/g/L for the WT strain to 8.49 g/g/L for the modified strain and the productivity of erythritol increased from 0.28 g/(L h) for the A101 strain to 0.41 g/(L h) for the modified strain. The application of the research may prove positive for shortening the cultivation time due to the increased rate of consumption of the substrate combined with the increased parameters of erythritol synthesis.