Engineering Flocculation for Improved Tolerance and Production of d-Lactic Acid in Pichia pastoris

d-lactic acid, a chiral organic acid, can enhance the thermal stability of polylactic acid plastics. Microorganisms such as the yeast Pichia pastoris, which lack the natural ability to produce or accumulate high amounts of d-lactic acid, have been metabolically engineered to produce it in high titers. However, tolerance to d-lactic acid remains a challenge. In this study, we demonstrate that cell flocculation improves tolerance to d-lactic acid and increases d-lactic acid production in Pichia pastoris. By incorporating a flocculation gene from Saccharomyces cerevisiae (ScFLO1) into P. pastoris KM71, we created a strain (KM71-ScFlo1) that demonstrated up to a 1.6-fold improvement in specific growth rate at high d-lactic acid concentrations. Furthermore, integrating a d-lactate dehydrogenase gene from Leuconostoc pseudomesenteroides (LpDLDH) into KM71-ScFlo1 resulted in an engineered strain (KM71-ScFlo1-LpDLDH) that could produce d-lactic acid at a titer of 5.12 ± 0.35 g/L in 48 h, a 2.6-fold improvement over the control strain lacking ScFLO1 expression. Transcriptomics analysis of this strain provided insights into the mechanism of increased tolerance to d-lactic acid, including the upregulations of genes involved in lactate transport and iron metabolism. Overall, our work represents an advancement in the efficient microbial production of d-lactic acid by manipulating yeast flocculation.