Metabolic engineering of Saccharomyces cerevisiae for improved polyphosphate production

Deleting PHO80 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae CEN.PK113-7D enables constitutive polyphosphate accumulation during aerobic exponential fed-batch growth, reaching 22.1% of cell dry weight and 8.2 g/L.

• Why it matters: Phosphate rock scarcity and phosphorus-recycling regulations motivate converting phosphorus-rich residual streams into valuable products, and microbial polyP synthesis could reduce reliance on energy-intensive chemical routes.
• What they did: The study screened 57 engineered S. cerevisiae strains after Pi starvation and refeeding, then optimized medium and used electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to support increased vacuolar storage.
• The result: Constitutive PHO regulon activation boosted polyP, while disrupting inositol pyrophosphate synthesis, Pi import, or vacuolar transporter chaperone complex impaired accumulation; pho80Δ then produced high polyP while forming biomass.

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