Oleaginous Yeasts as Cell Factories for the Sustainable Production of Microbial Lipids by the Valorization of Agri-Food Wastes

TLDR

The agri‑food industry generates large amounts of crop residues and wastes, and managing these by converting them into feedstocks supports circular economy principles and sustainability, with oleaginous yeasts serving as versatile tools for producing biobased chemicals. This review aims to present an extensive overview of research progress on the production and use of oleaginous yeasts and discuss current bottlenecks and perspectives for their exploitation in foods, biofuels, and fine chemicals. Oleaginous yeasts grow on diverse side‑stream carbon sources derived from agri‑food wastes, enabling them to serve as flexible microbial factories that produce single‑cell oils for foods, biofuels, and fine chemicals.

Abstract

The agri-food industry annually produces huge amounts of crops residues and wastes, the suitable management of these products is important to increase the sustainability of agro-industrial production by optimizing the entire value chain. This is also in line with the driving principles of the circular economy, according to which residues can become feedstocks for novel processes. Oleaginous yeasts represent a versatile tool to produce biobased chemicals and intermediates. They are flexible microbial factories able to grow on different side-stream carbon sources such as those deriving from agri-food wastes, and this characteristic makes them excellent candidates for integrated biorefinery processes through the production of microbial lipids, known as single cell oils (SCOs), for different applications. This review aims to present an extensive overview of research progress on the production and use of oleaginous yeasts and present discussions on the current bottlenecks and perspectives of their exploitation in different sectors, such as foods, biofuels and fine chemicals.