Bridging the Gap between Fluxomics and Industrial Biotechnology

Figure 3

Product yields as a function of enzymatic steps from central metabolism. The solid line is the regression of published product yields by S. cerevisiae as a function of reaction steps from intermediate metabolites in central metabolism (including glycolysis, TCA cycle and pentose-phosphate pathways). The yield declines exponentially as the number of reaction steps increases. The dotted lines are boundary curves with yield efficiencies of 30% and 70% respectively. All yield data from initial carbon sources are estimated from recent papers using our best judgment. The synthesized products and reaction steps are: Poly(R-3-hydroxybutyrate) [63] (steps = 3); Glycerol [64] (steps = 2); Artemisinic acid [1] (steps = 10); Amorphadiene [65] (steps = 9); Pyruvate [66] (steps = 0); Geranylgeraniol [67] (steps = 10); Hydrocortisone [68] (steps = 19); Squalene [69] (steps = 9); β-carotene [70] (steps = 12); Lycopene [70] (steps = 11); Phytoene [70] (steps = 10); p-hydroxycinnamic acid [71] (steps = 12); Naringenin [72] (steps = 14); Pinocembrin [72] (steps = 14); Xylitol and Ribitol [73] (steps = 3); Ethanol [74] (steps = 2); L-ascorbic acid [75] (steps = 8).