Production of ferulic acid and coniferyl alcohol by conversion of eugenol using a recombinant strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We isolated an industrial strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 92411 able to convert coniferyl alcohol (2 g/l) into ferulic acid (1.8 g/l). To use eugenol as a substrate for the synthesis of natural ferulic acid, an optimized sequence of the Penicillium simplicissimum vaoA gene, encoding the flavoenzyme vanillyl-alcohol oxidase (VAO), was expressed in the yeast 92411. To obtain a strong and stable expression of vaoA, an expression cassette flanked by Ty1 homologous sequences was constructed so the sequence encoding VAO could be integrated into various Ty1 loci of the host genome. The recombinant S. cerevisiae strain produced VAO. It synthesized ferulic acid directly from eugenol due to expression of the VAO activity and the natural ability of the strain to convert coniferyl alcohol into ferulic acid. In fermentation experiments, the strain produced up to 16.9 g/l of ferulic acid after 136 h. These results open new perspectives for the use of yeast biocatalysts in the biotechnological production of aromatic flavour from eugenol. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.