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Updated: Feb 7, 2026

Genetic Engineering of an Unconventional Yeast for Renewable Biofuel and Biochemical Production
Published on: September 20, 2016
Holistic Approaches in Lipid Production by Yarrowia lipolytica
Zbigniew Lazar1, Nian Liu2, Gregory Stephanopoulos3
1Department of Chemical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Biotechnology and Food Microbiology, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Chelmonskiego 37, 51-630 Wroclaw, Poland; These authors contributed equally.
Abstract:
Concerns about climate change have driven research on the production of lipid-derived biofuels as an alternative and renewable liquid fuel source. Using oleaginous yeasts for lipid synthesis creates the potential for cost-effective industrial-scale operations due to their ability to reach high lipid titer, yield, and productivity resulting from their unique metabolism. Yarrowia lipolytica is the model oleaginous yeast, with the best-studied lipid metabolism, the greatest number of genetic tools, and a fully sequenced genome. In this review we highlight multiomics studies that elucidate the mechanisms allowing this yeast to achieve lipid overaccumulation and then present several major metabolic engineering efforts that enhanced the production metrics in Y. lipolytica. Recent achievements that applied novel engineering strategies are emphasized.
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