Sustainable lipid production by oleaginous yeasts: Current outlook and challenges

Yeast lipid has gained prominence as a sustainable energy source and so various oleaginous yeasts are being investigated to create efficient lipogenic platforms. This review aims to assess the various biotechnological strategies for enhanced production of yeast lipids via agro-waste processing and media engineering including multiomic analyses, genetic engineering, random mutagenesis, and laboratory adaptive evolution. The review also emphasizes the role of cutting-edge omics technologies in pinpointing differentially expressed genes and enriched networks crucial for designing advanced metabolic engineering strategies for prominent oleaginous yeast species. The review addresses the challenges and future prospects of a viable lipid production industry that is possible through advancements in current technologies, strain improvement, media optimization and techno-economic and life cycle analyses at lab, pilot and industrial scales. This review comprehensively provides deep insights for enhancement of yeast lipid biosynthesis to reach industrially benchmarked standard of a lipid production platform.