Production of CoQ₁₀ in fission yeast by expression of genes responsible for CoQ₁₀ biosynthesis

Coenzyme Q₁₀ (CoQ₁₀) is essential for energy production and has become a popular supplement in recent years. In this study, CoQ₁₀ productivity was improved in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Ten CoQ biosynthetic genes were cloned and overexpressed in S. pombe. Strains expressing individual CoQ biosynthetic genes did not produce higher than a 10% increase in CoQ₁₀ production. In addition, simultaneous expression of all ten coq genes did not result in yield improvements. Genes responsible for the biosynthesis of p-hydroxybenzoate and decaprenyl diphosphate, both of which are CoQ biosynthesis precursors, were also overexpressed. CoQ₁₀ production was increased by overexpression of Eco_ubiC (encoding chorismate lyase), Eco_aroF^FBR (encoding 3-deoxy-d-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase), or Sce_thmgr1 (encoding truncated HMG-CoA reductase). Furthermore, simultaneous expression of these precursor genes resulted in two fold increases in CoQ₁₀ production.