Biotechnological Applications of the Yeast Yarrowia lipolytica

The yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is one of the most interesting non-conventional yeasts. It first became of interest because of its ability to metabolize paraffin hydrocarbons and crude oils containing long-chain hydrocarbons to production of single cell proteins. The fermentation of fatty low-value renewable carbon sources aiming at the production of various added-value metabolites presents a noticeable interest in the sector of industrial microbiology and biotechnology. §The yeast Y. lipolytica degrades very efficiently hydrophobic substrates such as n-alkanes, fatty acids, fats, and oils to production of valuable biotechnological products such as organic acids, extracellular enzymes, aroma compounds, bioemulsifier, polyols, single-cell protein, single-cell oil, and so on. Furthermore, it has good potential to carry out some important biotechnological activates like bioremediation, biodegradation and bioaccumulation. This non-conventional yeast as expression host exhibits a remarkable regularity of performance in the efficient expression/secretion of various heterologous proteins. Up to now, more than fifty heterologous proteins were produced in Y. lipolytica from viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, animals and human. §This work is a concise summary of cutting-edge research and biotechnological applications of Y. lipolytica as multipotential nonconventional yeast in the detergent, food, pharmaceutical, and environmental industries. It will create new ideas to use Y. lipolytica in future studies and applications for scientists and researchers at universities, industries, corporations and government agencies interested in different fields of biotechnology.