Image credit: Trinh lab, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Yarrowia lipolytica, a generally regarded-as-safe oleaginous yeast, is an emerging bioenergy microbe. It can natively produce high amounts of alpha-ketoglutarate, citrate, and neutral lipids by assimilating various substrates (e.g. hydrocarbons, ethanol, acetate, C5/C6 sugars, cellobiose, etc.) under specific conditions. A beneficial phenotype of Y. lipolytica is its exceptional tolerance to high salinity, organic solvents, and broad range of pH (pH 2-11). Screening of genetic diversity of a list of 45 Y. lipolytica strains shows that the strain YB567, isolated from gluten settling water, Pekin, IL, USA exhibited remarkable robustness in 90% undetoxified switchgrass hydrolysate with superior production of high titer lipid and sugar alcohols compared to model strain CLIB89 (W29) [1].

Reference:

1. Quarterman, J., et al., A survey of yeast from the Yarrowia clade for lipid production in dilute acid pretreated lignocellulosic biomass hydrolysate. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol, 2017. 101(8): p. 3319-3334.