Substrates and oxygen dependent citric acid production by Yarrowia lipolytica: insights through transcriptome and fluxome analyses

Unlike the well-studied backer yeast where catabolite repression represents a burden for mixed substrate fermentation, Yarrowia lipolytica, an oleaginous yeast, is recognized for its potential to produce single cell oils and citric acid from different feedstocks. These versatilities of Y. lipolytica with regards to substrate utilization make it an attractive host for biorefinery application. However, to develop a commercial process for the production of citric acid by Y. lipolytica, it is necessary to better understand the primary metabolism and its regulation, especially for growth on mixed substrate.

Controlling the dissolved oxygen concentration (pO₂) in Y. lipolytica cultures enhanced citric acid production significantly in cultures grown on glucose in mono- or dual substrate fermentations, whereas with glycerol as mono-substrate no significant effect of pO₂ was found on citrate production. Growth on mixed substrate with glucose and glycerol revealed a relative preference of glycerol utilization by Y. lipolytica. Under optimized conditions with pO₂ control, the citric acid titer on glucose in mono- or in dual substrate cultures was 55 and 50 g/L (with productivity of 0.6 g/L*h in both cultures), respectively, compared to a maximum of 18 g/L (0.2 g/L*h) with glycerol in monosubstrate culture. Additionally, in dual substrate fermentation, glycerol limitation was found to trigger citrate consumption despite the presence of enough glucose in pO₂-limited culture. The metabolic behavior of this yeast on different substrates was investigated at transcriptomic and ¹³C-based fluxomics levels.

Upregulation of most of the genes of the pentose phosphate pathway was found in cultures with highest citrate production with glucose in mono- or in dual substrate fermentation with pO₂ control. The activation of the glyoxylate cycle in the oxygen limited cultures and the imbalance caused by glycerol limitation might be the reason for the re-consumption of citrate in dual substrate fermentations. This study provides interesting targets for metabolic engineering of this industrial yeast.