Understanding and Eliminating the Detrimental Effect of Thiamine Deficiency on the Oleaginous Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

Thiamine plays a crucial role as an essential cofactor for enzymes involved in carbon and energy metabolism in all living cells. Thiamine deficiency has detrimental consequences for cellular health. Yarrowia lipolytica , a nonconventional oleaginous yeast with broad biotechnological applications, is a native thiamine auxotroph whose affected cellular metabolism is not well understood. Therefore, Y. lipolytica is an ideal eukaryotic host for the study of thiamine metabolism, especially because mammalian cells are also thiamine auxotrophic and thiamine deficiency is implicated in several human diseases. This study elucidates the fundamental effects of thiamine deficiency on cellular metabolism in Y. lipolytica and identifies genes and novel thiamine-regulated elements that eliminate thiamine auxotrophy in Y. lipolytica . Furthermore, the discovery of thiamine-regulated elements enables the development of thiamine biosensors with useful applications in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.