Recent advances in metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for lipid overproduction

Abstract

The non-conventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has been receiving growing attention due to its excellent lipid accumulation capacity. Microbial lipid has attracted widespread interest due to their broad applications as dietary supplements, cosmetic additives, oleochemicals and renewable starting materials for the production of fossil fuel. With the development of whole-genome sequencing, many effective genetic tools, including transformation systems, promoter systems, genomic integration and genome editing tools, have been applied in Y. lipolytica to enhance the overproduction of lipid. It can be genetically engineered for high lipid production via the upregulation of synthetic precursor and lipid synthesis pathways, the downregulation or disruption of competing pathways such as β-oxidation, and elimination of inhibitory factors. In this review, we summarize the lipid metabolism, available genetic tools, and recent advances in metabolic engineering of Y. lipolytica for the overproduction of lipid and lipid-derived chemicals. Future prospects of lipid biosynthesis in Y. lipolytica are discussed in light of the current progress, challenges, and trends in this field. Guidelines for future studies are also proposed.

Practical applications: General concerns about climate change, oil price crisis, and the increasing study for renewable energy are driving bio-lipid as promising alternatives to fossil fuel. Over the past few decades, microbial lipid has been widely applied in dietary supplements, cosmetic additives, oleochemicals and renewable starting materials for the production of fossil fuel. The non-conventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica has become an attractive metabolic engineering host for the production of microbial lipids due to its ability to synthesize them in large quantities. This review illuminated the lipid biosynthesis and degradation of Y. lipolytica, and summarized the metabolic engineering efforts which have targeted a variety of biosynthetic biosynthetic pathway to efficiently convert carbon source to lipid in oleaginous Y. lipolytica.

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