Advances in metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica to synthesize plant-derived terpenoids

Abstract:

Terpenoids are an important class of plant natural products that exhibit a broad range of biological activities. They have a wide range of applications in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, which lead to a huge increase in market demand for them. It is therefore of great importance to develop alternative sources of these value-added products to supplement or even replace the scarce and precious plant resources. At present, the well-known unconventional yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is fast becoming a promising chassis for the production of biofuels and biochemicals. In recent years, metabolic engineering of Y. lipolytica has provided a platform for effective production of valuable terpenoids. This review reports and summarizes some of the most interesting and promising recent progress of heterologous microbial production of plant terpenoids in the engineered Y. lipolytica strains, by elucidating the host strains, key enzymes, metabolic pathways, engineering strategies and product titers/yields. In addition, key challenges and future perspectives in this field are discussed.

Key words:metabolic engineering, Yarrowia lipolytica, plant natural products, terpenoids