Fermentation of Xylose Causes Inefficient Metabolic State Due to Carbon/Energy Starvation and Reduced Glycolytic Flux in Recombinant Industrial Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In the present study, comprehensive, quantitative metabolome analysis was carried out on the recombinant glucose/xylose-cofermenting S. cerevisiae strain MA-R4 during fermentation with different carbon sources, including glucose, xylose, or glucose/xylose mixtures. Capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry was used to determine the intracellular pools of metabolites from the central carbon pathways, energy metabolism pathways, and the levels of twenty amino acids. When xylose instead of glucose was metabolized by MA-R4, glycolytic metabolites including 3-phosphoglycerate, 2-phosphoglycerate, phosphoenolpyruvate, and pyruvate were dramatically reduced, while conversely, most pentose phosphate pathway metabolites such as sedoheptulose 7-phosphate and ribulose 5-phosphate were greatly increased. These results suggest that the low metabolic activity of glycolysis and the pool of pentose phosphate pathway intermediates are potential limiting factors in xylose utilization. It was further demonstrated that during xylose fermentation, about half of the twenty amino acids declined, and the adenylate/guanylate energy charge was impacted due to markedly decreased adenosine triphosphate/adenosine monophosphate and guanosine triphosphate/guanosine monophosphate ratios, implying that the fermentation of xylose leads to an inefficient metabolic state where the biosynthetic capabilities and energy balance are severely impaired. In addition, fermentation with xylose alone drastically increased the level of citrate in the tricarboxylic acid cycle and increased the aromatic amino acids tryptophan and tyrosine, strongly supporting the view that carbon starvation was induced. Interestingly, fermentation with xylose alone also increased the synthesis of the polyamine spermidine and its precursor S-adenosylmethionine. Thus, differences in carbon substrates, including glucose and xylose in the fermentation medium, strongly influenced the dynamic metabolism of MA-R4. These results provide a metabolic explanation for the low ethanol productivity on xylose compared to glucose.