Synthesis of Polyols and Organic Acids by Wild-Type and Metabolically Engineered Yarrowia lipolytica Strains

In the yeast Yarrowia lipolytica, sugar polyols and organic acids are derived from central metabolism, namely the citrate cycle and the pentose phosphate pathway. Although these metabolites have numerous applications in agro-food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, the main challenge is to gain productivity to obtain processes that are economically viable. Y. lipolytica is known for its ability to use industrial wastes or raw materials as feedstock and to grow at high cell density in large-scale bioreactor. Recent advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology allowed the development of efficient Y. lipolytica-based cell factories to bioconvert these feedstocks into added-value metabolites. This book chapter will focus on current knowledge on the synthesis of the most important polyols and organic acids in Y. lipolytica. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.