Environmental and industrial applications of Yarrowia lipolytica

Abstract

Yarrowia lipolytica is a fungus that degrades hydrophobic substrates very efficiently. The fungus displays several important characteristics that have encouraged researchers to study various basic biological and biotechnological applications in detail. Although the organism has been used as model system for studying dimorphism, salt tolerance, heterologous protein expression, and lipid accumulation, there are no recent reviews on the environmental and industrial applications of this organism. Included here are applications in bioremediation of environments contaminated with aliphatic and aromatic compounds, organic pollutants, 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene, and metals. A variety of industrially important recent processes for the synthesis of beta-hydroxy butyrate, L-dopa, and emulsifiers have also been reviewed. Production of unique inherent enzymes (inulinases, alpha-mannosidases), novel applications of esterases and lipases, and the use of the fungus for heterologous expression of biotechnologically relevant products have also been highlighted. The review while entailing a general overview focuses critically on some of the recent advances on the applications of this yeast. The examples cited here demonstrate the use of wild-type, mutant as well as genetically manipulated strains of Y. lipolytica for the development of different products, processes, and technologies. This also throws light on how a single organism can be versatile with respect to its metabolic abilities and how it can be exploited for a variety of purposes. This review will thus form a base for future developments in this field.

Biosorption of nickel (II) and zinc (II) from aqueous solutions by the biomass of yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

“…Physiological and biochemical properties, including the high secretory capability exhibited by Y. lipolytica, provided a basis for the biotechnological use of these microorganisms in biosynthesis, biotransformation and biodegradation. Currently, Y. lipolytica is used in the synthesis of organic acids, sweeteners, carotenoids, oil and microbiological protein 7 . Due to the high production of a number of enzymes, Y. lipolytica is a valuable tool in environmental protection -bioremediation of soil and water contaminated with oil, detoxifi cation of aromatic compounds, biosorption of heavy metals and the treatment of wastewater from the fi shing, oil and food industries 3, 7, 8 .…”

Combinatorial Engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica as a Promising Cell Biorefinery Platform for the de novo Production of Multi-Purpose Long Chain Dicarboxylic Acids

“…Our engineered strain showed good secretion efficiency, since more than half of the synthetized monomers were found in the media [102]. In fact, DCA of 13 carbons has been found to undergo passive diffusion due to the concentration difference between the inside and outside cells [101].…”

Single Cell Protein: A Resort to Global Protein Challenge and Waste Management

“…These problems are high concentration of nucleic acids which is 6-10% which elevates serum uric acid levels and becomes cause of health problems such as kidney stone formation [33]. Another problem is presence of cell wall which is non digestible, in case of algae and yeast, there may be unacceptable color and flavors, cells of organisms must be killed before consumption, there is chance of skin reaction from taking foreign proteins and gastrointestinal reactions may occur resulting in nausea and vomiting [27].…”