Metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica for industrial applications

Yarrowia lipolytica is a safe and robust yeast that has a history of industrial applications. Its physiological, metabolic and genomic characteristics have made it a superior host for metabolic engineering. The results of optimizing internal pathways and introducing new pathways have demonstrated that Y. lipolytica can be a platform cell factory for cost-effective production of chemicals and fuels derived from fatty acids, lipids and acetyl-CoA. Two products have been commercialized from metabolically engineered Y. lipolytica strains producing high amounts of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid, and more products are on the way to be produced at industrial scale. Here we review recent progress in metabolic engineering of Y. lipolytica for production of biodiesel fuel, functional fatty acids and carotenoids.