Recreating the synthesis of starch granules in yeast

Starch, as the major nutritional component of our staple crops and a feedstock for industry, is a vital plant product. It is composed of glucose polymers that form massive semi-crystalline granules. Its precise structure and composition determine its functionality and thus applications; however, there is no versatile model system allowing the relationships between the biosynthetic apparatus, glucan structure and properties to be explored. Here, we expressed the core Arabidopsis starch-biosynthesis pathway in Saccharomyces cerevisiae purged of its endogenous glycogen-metabolic enzymes. Systematic variation of the set of biosynthetic enzymes illustrated how each affects glucan structure and solubility. Expression of the complete set resulted in dense, insoluble granules with a starch-like semi-crystalline organization, demonstrating that this system indeed simulates starch biosynthesis. Thus, the yeast system has the potential to accelerate starch research and help create a holistic understanding of starch granule biosynthesis, providing a basis for the targeted biotechnological improvement of crops. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15552.001

• Publication year

  2016

• Venue

  eLife

• Publication date

  2016-11-22

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.7554/eLife.15552PMID 27871361PMCID 5119888
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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