Advancing metabolic engineering of Yarrowia lipolytica using the CRISPR/Cas system
Review article, 2018

© 2018, The Author(s). The oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica is widely used for the production of both bulk and fine chemicals, including organic acids, fatty acid-derived biofuels and chemicals, polyunsaturated fatty acids, single-cell proteins, terpenoids, and other valuable products. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly popular for metabolic engineering applications. Multiple gene manipulation tools including URA blast, Cre/LoxP, and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) have been developed for metabolic engineering in Y. lipolytica. However, the low efficiency and time-consuming procedures involved in these methods hamper further research. The emergence of the CRISPR/Cas system offers a potential solution for these problems due to its high efficiency, ease of operation, and time savings, which can significantly accelerate the genomic engineering of Y. lipolytica. In this review, we summarize the research progress on the development of CRISPR/Cas systems for Y. lipolytica, including Cas9 proteins and sgRNA expression strategies, as well as gene knock-out/knock-in and repression/activation applications. Finally, the most promising and tantalizing future prospects in this area are highlighted.

Genome editing

Yarrowia lipolytica

CRISPR/Cas

Metabolic engineering

Author

Tian Qiong Shi

Nanjing Tech University

He Huang

Nanjing Tech University

Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM)

Eduard Kerkhoven

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology

Xiao Jun Ji

Nanjing Tech University

Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials (SICAM)

Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

0175-7598 (ISSN) 1432-0614 (eISSN)

Vol. 102 22 9541-9548

Subject Categories

Other Mechanical Engineering

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Other Industrial Biotechnology

DOI

10.1007/s00253-018-9366-x

PubMed

30238143

More information

Latest update

6/20/2019