Study and engineering of C1 transport over yeast membranes

Living organisms have the ability to control which chemical substances can pass through their cell membranes. This is important to maintain stable conditions inside the cells, even when the environment changes. Transport through the membranes can be influenced in such a way that chemical reactions are guided in the desired direction. This means that the cells can take up more of certain substances to optimize their functions, or that they can transport products out more quickly to prevent their accumulation. Certain carbon compounds such as methanol and CO2 are particularly interesting as alternative raw materials for biotechnology. Although various microorganisms can make good use of these substances, we do not yet know exactly how the cells take them up. We study the genomes of microalgae and bacteria to enable yeast cells to uptake CO2 efficiently, and we study methanol transport in yeast cells. The research results are intended to help enable biotechnological production of valuable materials from CO2.