FEMS Director of Education & Public Engagement | FEMS Journal publications | EAM

Prof Andriy Sibirny is interested in the mechanisms of yeast autophagy, including that of specific autophagic degradation of peroxisome (pexophagy). Several new genes have been described including ATG26, ATG28, ATG35, TRS1, GSS1 etc. on the model yeast organisms Komagataella phaffii (Pichia pastoris), Yarrowia lipolytica, Ogataea polymorpha and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Additionally, Andriy studies the mechanisms of autophagic degradation of soluble cytosolic proteins.

In the field of yeast biotechnology, Andriy and colleagues have constructed:

• strains of S. cerevisiae with an elevated production of first generation ethanol and an anaerobic overproducer of glycerol
• strains of thermotolerant methylotrophic yeast O. polymorpha capable of active production of ethanol from pentose sugar xylose and by-product glycerol
• overproducers of glycerol synthesis in O. polymorpha
• overproducers of riboflavin and flavin nucleotides in the flavinogenic yeast Candida famata
• isolated strains of O. polymorpha and Escherichia coli that are able to produce recombinant proteins as hepatitis surface antigen, glucose oxidase, amylolytic and xylanolytic enzymes and anticancer protein arginine deaminase