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Oleaginous yeasts: Promising platforms for the production of oleochemicals and biofuels
Author(s) -
Adrio José L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.26337
Subject(s) - yarrowia , metabolic engineering , biofuel , yeast , fatty acid , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , biochemistry , lipogenesis , biology , lipid metabolism , enzyme
Oleaginous yeasts have a unique physiology that makes them the best suited hosts for the production of lipids, oleochemicals, and diesel‐like fuels. Their high lipogenesis, capability of growing on many different carbon sources (including lignocellulosic sugars), easy large‐scale cultivation, and an increasing number of genetic tools are some of the advantages that have encouraged their use to develop sustainable processes. This mini‐review summarizes the metabolic engineering strategies developed in oleaginous yeasts within the last 2 years to improve process metrics (titer, yield, and productivity) for the production of lipids, free fatty acids, fatty acid‐based chemicals (e.g., fatty alcohols, fatty acid ethyl esters), and alkanes. During this short period of time, tremendous progress has been made in Yarrowia lipolytica , the model oleaginous yeast, which has been engineered to improve lipid production by different strategies including increasing lipogenic pathway flux and biosynthetic precursors, and blocking degradation pathways. Moreover, remarkable advances have also been reported in Rhodosporidium toruloides and Lipomyces starkey despite the limited genetic tools available for these two very promising hosts. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2017;114: 1915–1920. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.