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 YB566, isolated from gluten settling water, Pekin, IL, USA exhibited notable robustness compare to model strain CLIB89 (W29) in nondetoxified hydrolysate. YB566 assimilated 30% more xylose into about 80.5% of theoretical yield of xylitol (20.7 g/L) in 60% undetoxified switchgrass hydrolysate [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.