Recent advances in biological production of erythritol

Abstract

Erythritol is a natural sweetener commonly used in the food and pharmaceutical industries. Produced by microorganisms as an osmoprotectant, it is an ideal sucrose substitute for diabetics or overweight persons due to its almost zero calorie content. Currently, erythritol is produced on an industrial scale through the fermentation of sugars by some yeasts, such as Moniliella sp. However, the popularity of erythritol as a sweetener is still small because of its high retail price. This creates an opportunity for further process improvement. Recent years have brought the rapid development of erythritol biosynthesis methods from the low-cost substrates, and a better understanding of the metabolic pathways leading to erythritol synthesis. The yeast Yarrowia lipolytica emerges as an organism effectively producing erythritol from pure or crude glycerol. Moreover, novel erythritol producing organisms and substrates may be taken into considerations due to metabolic engineering. This review focuses on the modification of erythritol production to use low-cost substrates and metabolic engineering of the microorganisms in order to improve yield and productivity.

Microbiological Production of Isocitric Acid from Biodiesel Waste and Its Effect on Spatial Memory

“…In the medium with ethanol, Y. lipolytica actively synthesized equal amounts of ICA and CA at high aeration (90-95% saturation); at an average level of aeration (60-65% saturation), the yeast predominantly produced ICA, while the synthesis of CA was suppressed; poor aeration (28%-30% saturation) suppressed both yeast growth and acid formation [12]. In the medium with waste glycerol, the optimal yield of ICA was observed at 60-70% saturation [32], while with pure glycerol no significant effect of pO 2 was found on citrate production [48]. There are data that the agitation rates of 800 and 900 rpm and aeration rates within the range of 0.24-0.48 vvm generated the dissolved oxygen concentrations higher than 40%, which are the best for citric acid biosynthesis from glycerol [49].…”

“…With the aid of Y. lipolytica strains, biodiesel waste can be converted into microbial protein [26], lipids [27][28][29][30], polyols [31,32], ketoacids [33,34], as well as citric acid (CA) and its salts [35][36][37][38]. In addition to CA, the wild strains Y. lipolytica cultivated on biodiesel waste accumulates ICA in sufficient amounts [39,40].…”

Natural Sweeteners: The Relevance of Food Naturalness for Consumers, Food Security Aspects, Sustainability and Health Impacts

“…During this process, erythrose and erythritol are produced by the electrolytic decarboxylation of arabinoic or ribonic acid. The substrates for the reaction are obtained by the decarboxylation of C-6 sugars [ 113 ]. However, a more natural method involves the biotechnological process, which results in higher yields from fermenting a sugar source.…”

Sugar Alcohols and Organic Acids Synthesis in Yarrowia lipolytica: Where Are We?

“…EOL synthesis and production strategies in bioreactors have been recently reviewed by our groups and others [97,104,105]. Therefore, only the main achievements that are not covered in these reviews will be presented in this section.…”