FadR-Based Biosensor-Assisted Screening for Genes Enhancing Fatty Acyl-CoA Pools in .

Fatty acid-derived compounds have a range of industrial applications， from chemical building blocks to biofuels. Due to the highly dynamic nature of fatty acid metabolism， it is difficult to identify genes modulating fatty acyl-CoA levels using a rational approach. Metabolite biosensors can be used to screen genes from large-scale libraries in a high throughput manner. Here， a fatty acyl-CoA sensor based on the transcription factor FadR from was established in and combined with a gene overexpression library to screen for genes increasing the fatty acyl-CoA pool. Fluorescence-activated cell sorting， followed by data analysis， identified genes enhancing acyl-CoA levels. From these， overexpression of ， ， and resulted in about 80% increased fatty alcohol levels. Changes in fatty acid saturation and chain length distribution could also be observed. These results indicate that the use of this acyl-CoA biosensor combined with a gene overexpression library allows for identification of gene targets improving production of fatty acids and derived products.