Advances in the metabolic engineering of <i>Saccharomyces cerevisiae</i> and <i>Yarrowia lipolytica</i> for the production of <b>β</b> -carotene
Qi Guo, Qianqian Peng, Yawen Li, Fang Yan, Yuetong Wang, Chao Ye, Tian‐Qiong Shi
Abstract
β-Carotene is one kind of the most important carotenoids. The major functions of β-carotene include the antioxidant and anti-cardiovascular properties, which make it a growing market. Recently, the use of metabolic engineering to construct microbial cell factories to synthesize β-carotene has become the latest model for its industrial production. Among these cell factories, yeasts including Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica have attracted the most attention because of the: security, mature genetic manipulation tools, high flux toward carotenoids using the native mevalonate pathway and robustness for large-scale fermentation. In this review, the latest strategies for β-carotene biosynthesis, including protein engineering, promoters engineering and morphological engineering are summarized in detail. Finally, perspectives for future engineering approaches are proposed to improve β-carotene production.