Combining orthogonal plant and non-plant fatty acid biosynthesis pathways for efficient production of microbial oil enriched in nervonic acid in Yarrowia lipolytica

Nervonic acid has proven efficacy in brain development and the prevention of neurodegenerative diseases. Here, an alternative and sustainable strategy for nervonic acid-enriched plant oil production was established. Different β-ketoacyl-CoA synthases and heterologous Δ15 desaturase were co-expressed, combined with the deletion of the β-oxidation pathway to construct orthogonal plant and non-plant nervonic acid biosynthesis pathways in Yarrowia lipolytica. A “block-pull-restrain” strategy was further applied to improve the supply of stearic acid as the precursor of the non-plant pathway. Then, lysophosphatidic acid acyltransferase from Malania oleifera (MoLpaat) was identified, which showed specificity for nervonic acid. Endogenous LPAAT was exchanged by MoLPAAT resulted in 17.10 % nervonic acid accumulation. Finally, lipid metabolism was engineered and cofactor supply was increased to boost the lipid accumulation in a stable null-hyphal strain. The final strain produced 57.84 g/L oils with 23.44 % nervonic acid in fed-batch fermentation, which has the potential to substitute nervonic acid-enriched plant oil.