Book of Abstracts of CEB Annual Meeting 2017Yarrowia lipolytica, a strictly aerobic yeast, with GRAS status, has an intense secretory activity and can
metabolize a wide range of substrates that guaranteed a spot as an interesting industrial organism.
Recently, food supplements derived from this yeast were approved for commercialization, which is
particularly important for broadening the range of possible applications of the compounds produced by
Y. lipolytica [1]. Within “Bioprocess Development and Optimization” research team, Y. lipolytica has been
used as a cell model and exploited applying the biorefinery concept for the production of enzymes,
microbial lipids, aroma and organic acids, using low-cost renewable substrates.
A yeast-based integrated system was developed to valorize agro-industrial wastes, namely waste
cooking oils and lard (used as a model of animal fat), by producing microbial lipids and lipase. The yeast
oil content accumulated by Y. lipolytica from these inexpensive wastes was one of the higher ever
reported for a non-genetically modified Yarrowia strain. Moreover, the simultaneous production of
lipase may reduce the production cost of the microbial lipids and demonstrates that a biorefinery
approach may be designed based on fat raw materials, allowing at the same time the reduction of fatty
wastes surplus.
Lipids accumulation on Y. lipolytica may also occur from non-oily substrates such as glucose or glycerol
that can also lead to citric acid (CA) production under nitrogen-limitation conditions. Crude glycerol, byproduct
from Biodiesel industry, has been used for CA production. Optimization of CA has been carried
out by enhancing oxygen transfer rate at different types of bioreactors, such as STR, pressurized and
airlift, as well as by mutagenesis strategies for strains improvement.
Yarrowia lipolytica is a model microorganism for lipids metabolism. It can produce several compounds
from fatty acids catabolism, mainly aromatic compounds, such as lactones. This species is able to
transform ricinoleic acid into γ-decalactone, a peach-like aroma compound of great importance for
flavoring industry. The production of γ-decalactone has been intensively studied in order to better
understand all process and optimize it. The role of lipases in substrate hydrolysis, the effect of substrate
concentration, dissolved oxygen concentration and different fermentation strategies - batch and stepwise
fed-batch – and bioreactor designs (STR and airlift) in the γ-decalactone production was
investigated [2]. The characterization of γ-decalactone production by genetic modified strains at labscale
bioreactor was also performed. Yarrowia lipolytica potential to produce other aromatic
compounds, such as 2-phenylethanol, is been now explored.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
