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Yeast biotechnology

Edited by Prof Diethard Mattanovich

Microbial Cell Factories invites submissions to the recently launched thematic series on “Yeast biotechnology”.

Mankind has exploited the metabolic activities of yeasts in baking and brewing for several millennia. The invention of the fed-batch technology for production of bakers' yeast has been a cornerstone of modern biotechnology, enabling the development of efficient production processes for antibiotics, biopharmaceuticals and technical enzymes. Alcoholic fermentation, on the other hand, is a model for microbial metabolite production and has become a major research focus for the manufacturing of biofuels. Expanding from our knowledge on bakers' yeast, diverse yeast species are explored today. The series highlights the latest research to produce biopharmaceuticals, enzymes, alcohols, organic acids, flavours and fine chemicals, underlining the huge potential of yeast biotechnology.

This collection of articles has not been sponsored and articles have undergone the journal’s standard peer-review process. The Guest Editors declare no competing interests.

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  2. Manipulations in Saccharomyces cerevisiae classically depend on use of auxotrophy selection markers. There are several disadvantages to this in a microbial cell factory setting: (1) auxotrophies must first be eng...

    Authors: Claudia E Vickers, Sarah F Bydder, Yuchan Zhou and Lars K Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:96
    Content type: Technical Notes Published on:

  3. Biotechnological production of the traditional petrochemical ethylene is presently being explored using yeasts as well as bacteria. In this study we quantify the specific ethylene production levels at differen...

    Authors: Nina Johansson, Paul Quehl, Joakim Norbeck and Christer Larsson
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:89
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. Production of bioethanol from lignocellulosic biomass requires the development of robust microorganisms that can tolerate the stressful conditions prevailing in lignocellulosic hydrolysates. Several inhibitors...

    Authors: Magnus Ask, Valeria Mapelli, Heidi Höck, Lisbeth Olsson and Maurizio Bettiga
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:87
    Content type: Research Published on:

  5. Heterologous microbial production of rare plant terpenoids of medicinal or industrial interest is attracting more and more attention but terpenoid yields are still low. Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisi...

    Authors: Evamaria Gruchattka, Oliver Hädicke, Steffen Klamt, Verena Schütz and Oliver Kayser
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:84
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Optimization of industrial biomass directed processes requires the highest biomass yield as possible. Yet, some useful yeasts like Saccharomyces cerevisiae are subject to the Crabtree effect under glucose excess....

    Authors: Jillian Marc, David Feria-Gervasio, Jean-Roch Mouret and Stéphane E Guillouet
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:83
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Glycolic acid is a C2 hydroxy acid that is a widely used chemical compound. It can be polymerised to produce biodegradable polymers with excellent gas barrier properties. Currently, glycolic acid is produced i...

    Authors: Outi M Koivistoinen, Joosu Kuivanen, Dorothee Barth, Heidi Turkia, Juha-Pekka Pitkänen, Merja Penttilä and Peter Richard
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:82
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. Polyketides are one of the most important classes of secondary metabolites and usually make good drugs. Currently, heterologous production of fungal polyketides for developing a high potential industrial appli...

    Authors: Limei Gao, Menghao Cai, Wei Shen, Siwei Xiao, Xiangshan Zhou and Yuanxing Zhang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:77
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) has been extensively studied for decades because of its health benefits including cancer prevention, anti-atherogenic and anti-obesity effects, and modulation of the immune syste...

    Authors: Baixi Zhang, Haiqin Chen, Min Li, Zhennan Gu, Yuanda Song, Colin Ratledge, Yong Q Chen, Hao Zhang and Wei Chen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:70
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Numerous studies have examined the direct fermentation of cellulosic materials by cellulase-expressing yeast; however, ethanol productivity in these systems has not yet reached an industrial level. Certain mic...

    Authors: Yuki Nakatani, Ryosuke Yamada, Chiaki Ogino and Akihiko Kondo
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:66
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. The optimization of metabolic pathways is critical for efficient and economical production of biofuels and specialty chemicals. One such significant pathway is the cellobiose utilization pathway, identified as...

    Authors: Dawn T Eriksen, Pei Chiun Helen Hsieh, Patrick Lynn and Huimin Zhao
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:61
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. L-ascorbic acid (L-AA) is naturally synthesized in plants from D-glucose by 10 steps pathway. The pathway branch to synthesize L-galactose, the key intermediate for L-ascorbic acid biosynthesis, has been recen...

    Authors: Júlio César Câmara Rosa, Lívia Tavares Colombo, Mariana Caroline Tocantins Alvim, Nelson Avonce, Patrick Van Dijck and Flávia Maria Lopes Passos
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:59
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Polylactic acid is a renewable raw material that is increasingly used in the manufacture of bioplastics, which offers a more sustainable alternative to materials derived from fossil resources. Both lactic acid...

    Authors: Marja Ilmén, Kari Koivuranta, Laura Ruohonen, Vineet Rajgarhia, Pirkko Suominen and Merja Penttilä
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:53
    Content type: Research Published on:

  14. Novel analytical tools, which shorten the long and costly development cycles of biopharmaceuticals are essential. Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) shows great promise in improving our understanding of the metabol...

    Authors: Mariana L Fazenda, Joao ML Dias, Linda M Harvey, Alison Nordon, Ruan Edrada-Ebel, David LittleJohn and Brian McNeil
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:51
    Content type: Research Published on:

  15. In vivo recombination of overlapping DNA fragments for assembly of large DNA constructs in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae holds great potential for pathway engineering on a small laboratory scale as well as f...

    Authors: Niels GA Kuijpers, Daniel Solis-Escalante, Lizanne Bosman, Marcel van den Broek, Jack T Pronk, Jean-Marc Daran and Pascale Daran-Lapujade
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:47
    Content type: Technical Notes Published on:

  16. To isolate over-secretors, we subjected to saturation mutagenesis, a strain of P.pastoris exporting E. coli alkaline phosphatase (EAP) fused to the secretory domain of the yeast α factor pheromone through cellula...

    Authors: Ferez S Nallaseth and Stephen Anderson
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:36
    Content type: Technical Notes Published on:

  17. Kluyveromyces marxianus combines the ease of genetic manipulation and fermentation with the ability to efficiently secrete high molecular weight proteins, performing eukaryotic post-translational modifications. I...

    Authors: Stefano Raimondi, Elena Zanni, Alberto Amaretti, Claudio Palleschi, Daniela Uccelletti and Maddalena Rossi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:34
    Content type: Research Published on:

  18. One of the main challenges for heterologous protein production by the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris at large-scale is related to its high oxygen demand. A promising solution is a co-feeding strategy based ...

    Authors: Hongxing Niu, Laurent Jost, Nathalie Pirlot, Hosni Sassi, Marc Daukandt, Christian Rodriguez and Patrick Fickers
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:33
    Content type: Research Published on:

  19. Fungal polyketides include commercially important pharmaceuticals and food additives, e.g. the cholesterol-lowering statins and the red and orange monascus pigments. Presently, production relies on isolation o...

    Authors: Peter Rugbjerg, Michael Naesby, Uffe H Mortensen and Rasmus JN Frandsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:31
    Content type: Research Published on:

  20. Finely regulating the carbon flux through the glycerol pathway by regulating the expression of the rate controlling enzyme, glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), has been a promising approach to redirect ...

    Authors: Julien Pagliardini, Georg Hubmann, Sandrine Alfenore, Elke Nevoigt, Carine Bideaux and Stephane E Guillouet
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:29
    Content type: Research Published on:

  21. Yeast is recognized as a generally safe microorganism and is utilized for the production of pharmaceutical products, including vaccines. We previously showed that expression of human immunodeficiency virus typ...

    Authors: Naoki Tomo, Toshiyuki Goto and Yuko Morikawa
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:28
    Content type: Research Published on:

  22. Pachysolen tannophilus is a non-conventional yeast, which can metabolize many of the carbon sources found in low cost feedstocks including glycerol and xylose. The xylose utilisation pathways have been extensivel...

    Authors: Xiaoying Liu, Uffe Hasbro Mortensen and Mhairi Workman
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:27
    Content type: Research Published on:

  23. Cellulosic biomass is considered as a promising alternative to fossil fuels, but its recalcitrant nature and high cost of cellulase are the major obstacles to utilize this material. Consolidated bioprocessing ...

    Authors: Sujin Kim, Seung-Ho Baek, Kyusung Lee and Ji-Sook Hahn
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:14
    Content type: Research Published on:

  24. The red yeast Xanthophyllomyces dendrorhous is a natural producer of the carotenoid astaxanthin. Because of its high flux, the native terpene pathway leading to the production of the tetraterpene is of particular...

    Authors: Elena Melillo, Rita Setroikromo, Wim J Quax and Oliver Kayser
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:13
    Content type: Research Published on:

  26. Inducible high-level expression is favoured for recombinant protein production in Pichia pastoris. Therefore, novel regulated promoters are desired, ideally repressing heterologous gene expression during initial ...

    Authors: Roland Prielhofer, Michael Maurer, Joachim Klein, Jana Wenger, Christoph Kiziak, Brigitte Gasser and Diethard Mattanovich
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:5
    Content type: Research Published on:

  27. Yeast viability and vitality are essential for different industrial processes where the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae is used as a biotechnological tool. Therefore, the decline of yeast biological functions duri...

    Authors: Helena Orozco, Emilia Matallana and Agustín Aranda
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2013 12:1
    Content type: Research Published on:

  28. Terpenoids and isoprenoids are an important class of natural products, which includes currently used drugs, high value bioactive and industrial compounds, and fuel candidates. Due to their industrial applicati...

    Authors: Codruta Ignea, Fotini A Trikka, Ioannis Kourtzelis, Anagnostis Argiriou, Angelos K Kanellis, Sotirios C Kampranis and Antonios M Makris
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:162
    Content type: Research Published on:

  29. Flavonoids comprise a large family of secondary plant metabolic intermediates that exhibit a wide variety of antioxidant and human health-related properties. Plant production of flavonoids is limited by the lo...

    Authors: Frank Koopman, Jules Beekwilder, Barbara Crimi, Adele van Houwelingen, Robert D Hall, Dirk Bosch, Antonius JA van Maris, Jack T Pronk and Jean-Marc Daran
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:155
    Content type: Research Published on:

  30. Scheffersomyces stipitis is a Crabtree negative yeast, commonly known for its capacity to ferment pentose sugars. Differently from Crabtree positive yeasts such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the onset of fermentat...

    Authors: Marta Papini, Intawat Nookaew, Mathias Uhlén and Jens Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:136
    Content type: Research Published on:

  31. Pyruvate-decarboxylase negative (Pdc-) strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae combine the robustness and high glycolytic capacity of this yeast with the absence of alcoholic fermentation. This makes Pdc-S. cerevisia...

    Authors: Bart Oud, Carmen-Lisset Flores, Carlos Gancedo, Xiuying Zhang, Joshua Trueheart, Jean-Marc Daran, Jack T Pronk and Antonius JA van Maris
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:131
    Content type: Research Published on:

  32. The budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae supports replication of many different RNA or DNA viruses (e.g. Tombusviruses or Papillomaviruses) and has provided means for up-scalable, cost- and time-effective produ...

    Authors: Ana Backovic, Tiziana Cervelli, Alessandra Salvetti, Lorena Zentilin, Mauro Giacca and Alvaro Galli
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:124
    Content type: Research Published on:

  33. Overflow metabolism is well known for yeast, bacteria and mammalian cells. It typically occurs under glucose excess conditions and is characterized by excretions of by-products such as ethanol, acetate or lact...

    Authors: Nicole Paczia, Anke Nilgen, Tobias Lehmann, Jochem Gätgens, Wolfgang Wiechert and Stephan Noack
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:122
    Content type: Research Published on:

  34. Sesquiterpenes are a class of natural products with a diverse range of attractive industrial proprieties. Due to economic difficulties of sesquiterpene production via extraction from plants or chemical synthes...

    Authors: Gionata Scalcinati, Siavash Partow, Verena Siewers, Michel Schalk, Laurent Daviet and Jens Nielsen
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:117
    Content type: Research Published on:

  35. D-Tagatose is a natural monosaccharide which can be used as a low-calorie sugar substitute in food, beverages and pharmaceutical products. It is also currently being tested as an anti-diabetic and obesity cont...

    Authors: Marta Wanarska and Józef Kur
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:113
    Content type: Research Published on:

  36. The Crabtree-negative yeast species Kluyveromyces lactis has been established as an attractive microbial expression system for recombinant proteins at industrial scale. Its LAC genes allow for utilization of the ...

    Authors: Jorrit-Jan Krijger, Jan Baumann, Melanie Wagner, Katja Schulze, Christian Reinsch, Thomas Klose, Osita F Onuma, Claudia Simon, Sven-Erik Behrens and Karin D Breunig
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:112
    Content type: Research Published on:

  37. Biocatalytic asymmetric reductions with whole cells can offer high enantioselectivity, environmentally benign processes and energy-effective operations and thus are of great interest. The application of whole ...

    Authors: Bo-Bo Zhang, Jing Cheng, Wen-Yong Lou, Pan Wang and Min-Hua Zong
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:108
    Content type: Research Published on:

  38. Yarrowia lipolytica efficiently metabolizes and assimilates hydrophobic compounds such as n-alkanes and fatty acids. Efficient substrate uptake is enabled by naturally secreted emulsifiers and a modified cell sur...

    Authors: Andreas Braun, Martina Geier, Bruno Bühler, Andreas Schmid, Stephan Mauersberger and Anton Glieder
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:106
    Content type: Research Published on:

  39. Viability in a non dividing state is referred to as chronological life span (CLS). Most grape juice fermentation happens when Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells have stopped dividing; therefore, CLS is an impor...

    Authors: Helena Orozco, Emilia Matallana and Agustín Aranda
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:104
    Content type: Research Published on:

  40. Pichia pastoris is an established eukaryotic host for the production of recombinant proteins. Most often, protein production is under the control of the strong methanol-inducible aox1 promoter. However, detailed ...

    Authors: AnaLeticia Vanz, Heinrich Lünsdorf, Ahmad Adnan, Manfred Nimtz, Chandrasekhar Gurramkonda, Navin Khanna and Ursula Rinas
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:103
    Content type: Research Published on:

  41. Lipase from Rhizopus chinensis is a versatile biocatalyst for various bioconversions and has been expressed at high-level in Pichia pastoris. However, the use of R. chinensis lipase in industrial applications is ...

    Authors: Xiao-Wei Yu, Rui Wang, Meng Zhang, Yan Xu and Rong Xiao
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:102
    Content type: Research Published on:

  42. The expression and activity of the different Saccharomyces cerevisiae hexose uptake systems (Hxt) and the kinetics of glucose uptake are considered essential to industrial alcoholic fermentation performance. Howe...

    Authors: Margarida Palma, Sara Cordeiro Madeira, Ana Mendes-Ferreira and Isabel Sá-Correia
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:99
    Content type: Research Published on:

  43. The understanding of the molecular basis of yeast tolerance to ethanol may guide the design of rational strategies to increase process performance in industrial alcoholic fermentations. A set of 21 genes encod...

    Authors: Miguel C Teixeira, Cláudia P Godinho, Tânia R Cabrito, Nuno P Mira and Isabel Sá-Correia
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:98
    Content type: Research Published on:

  44. Traditionally average values of the whole population are considered when analysing microbial cell cultivations. However, a typical microbial population in a bioreactor is heterogeneous in most phenotypes measu...

    Authors: Magnus Carlquist, Rita Lencastre Fernandes, Søren Helmark, Anna-Lena Heins, Luisa Lundin, Søren J Sørensen, Krist V Gernaey and Anna Eliasson Lantz
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:94
    Content type: Research Published on:

  45. Yeast mating provides an efficient means for strain and library construction. However, biotechnological applications of mating in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris have been hampered because of concerns ab...

    Authors: Ming-Tang Chen, Song Lin, Ishaan Shandil, Dewan Andrews, Terrance A Stadheim and Byung-Kwon Choi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2012 11:91
    Content type: Research Published on: