Natural and modifi ed promoters for tailored metabolic engineering of the yeast saccharomyces cerevisiae

The ease of highly sophisticated genetic manipulations in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae has initiated numerous initiatives towards development of metabolically engineered strains for novel applications beyond its traditional use in brewing, baking, and wine making. In fact, baker’s yeast has become a key cell factory for the production of various bulk and fi ne chemicals. Successful metabolic engineering requires fi ne-tuned adjustments of metabolic fl uxes and coordination of multiple pathways within the cell. This has mostly been achieved by controlling gene expression at the transcriptional level, i.e., by using promoters with appropriate strengths and regulatory properties. Here we present an overview of natural and modifi ed promoters, which have been used in metabolic pathway engineering of S. cerevisiae. Recent developments in creating promoters with tailor-made properties are also discussed.