Fermentation of Mevalonate by Saccharomycopsis fibuligera IFO 0107

Abstract

Saccharomycopsis fibuligera IFO 0107 was found to overproduce R-mevalonate. In a typical experiment this strain produced 8.3 mg/ml of mevalonate. Mevalonate is synthesized by 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase and converted to 5-phosphomevalonate by mevalonate kinase. The yeast strain showed 3 ∼ 20 times higher HMG-CoA reductase and ∼4 times lower mevalonate kinase activities, as compared with several yeast strains which produced no detectable amounts of mevalonate. The high ratio of specific activity of HMG-CoA reductase/mevalonate kinase seems to be responsible for the accumulation of mevalonate by S. fibuligera IFO 0107.