Enhancing the thermotolerance and erythritol production of Yarrowia lipolytica by introducing heat-resistant devices

Abstract

Yarrowia lipolytica has been widely used in the food biotech-related industry, where it plays the host’s role in producing erythritol. Nevertheless, a temperature of about 28°C–30°C has been estimated as the yeast’s optimal growth temperature, leading to the consumption of a considerable quantity of cooling water, especially in summer, which is obligatory for fermentation. Herein is described a method for improving the thermotolerance and erythritol production efficiency at high temperatures of Y. lipolytica. Through screening and testing different heat resistant devices, eight refactored engineered strains showed better growth at higher temperature and the antioxidant properties of the eight engineered strains were also improved. In addition, the erythritol titer, yield and productivity of the strain FOS11-Ctt1 represented the best among the eight strains, reaching at 39.25 g/L, 0.348 g/g glucose, and 0.55 g/L/h respectively, which were increased by 156%, 86% and 161% compared with the control strain, respectively. This study provides insight into an effective heat-resistant device that could enhance the thermotolerance and erythritol production of Y. lipolytica, which might be considered a valued scientific reference for other resistant strains’ construction.

Adaptive responses of erythritol-producing Yarrowia lipolytica to thermal stress after evolution

“…For example, Wang and co-authors used a gene RSP5 encoding ubiquitin ligase from S. cerevisiae to improve the thermotolerance of Yarrowia lipolytica CGMCC7326, after which the strain could grow at 35 °C and retain an efficient erythritol production capacity at 33 °C (Wang et al 2020 ). In another study, heat-resistant devices, including stress response proteins, heat shock proteins, and ubiquitin ligases, from thermophiles were introduced into Y. lipolytica to create strains capable of growing at 35 °C (Liang et al 2023b ). Although an introduction of exogenous genes could endow strains with a thermotolerant phenotype, sometimes, overexpression of these genes may produce an unknown effect, thereby influencing their industrial performance.…”

“…For another, concerning consolidated bioprocessing, fermentation at high temperatures enables the saccharification and fermentation processes to proceed simultaneously, which will increase efficiencies and reduce cost (Montano Lopez et al 2022 ; Yang et al 2023 ). Moreover, production of erythritol from lignocellulosic biomass using Y. lipolytica is also favored at a higher temperature (Liang et al 2023b ). In the past years, some groups have obtained thermotolerant Y. lipolytica by introducing heat-resistant devices, and the growth temperature of Y. lipolytica has been elevated from 30 to ~ 35 °C, which is economically valuable (Wang et al 2020 ; Zhang et al 2022 ; Liang et al 2023b ).…”

“…Moreover, production of erythritol from lignocellulosic biomass using Y. lipolytica is also favored at a higher temperature (Liang et al 2023b ). In the past years, some groups have obtained thermotolerant Y. lipolytica by introducing heat-resistant devices, and the growth temperature of Y. lipolytica has been elevated from 30 to ~ 35 °C, which is economically valuable (Wang et al 2020 ; Zhang et al 2022 ; Liang et al 2023b ). However, thermotolerant Y. lipolytica capable of growing at a temperature higher than 35 °C is generally hard to obtain by simply expressing or over-expressing exogenous heat-resistant proteins.…”

Recent Advances in the Biosynthesis of Natural Sugar Substitutes in Yeast

“…To further improve the heat resistance and production performance of Y. lipolytica , thirty potential heat-resistant genes with different functions were screened and tested in different thermotolerant strains. Eight proteins improved the growth of Y. lipolytica and the production of erythritol at 35 °C [ 63 ].…”

Tunable Zeolitic Imidazolate Framework‐8 Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

“…Furthermore, Zn 2+ has excellent antibacterial, anti-inflammatory and osteogenic capability which means ZIF-8 exhibits great potential in fields like antibacteria [1] and bone tissue engineering. [2,3] More importantly, abundant metal active sites and dynamic microporosity endow ZIF-8 with the ability to accommodate various guest molecules such as chemotherapeutic agents, [4,5] photosensitizers, [6,7] targeting agents, [8] biomolecules, [9,10] contrast agent [11] and so on. Hence, quantities of researches have been done on ZIF-8 based materials in hot areas like bioimaging and drug delivery system.…”