Yarrowia

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Genus of fungi

title: "Yarrowia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["ascomycota-genera", "dipodascomycetes", "taxa-described-in-1981"] description: "Genus of fungi" topic_path: "general/ascomycota-genera" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarrowia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Genus of fungi ::

Yarrowia is a fungal genus in the family Dipodascaceae. For a while the genus was monotypic, containing the single species Yarrowia lipolytica, a yeast that can use unusual carbon sources, such as hydrocarbons. This has made it of interest for use in industrial microbiology, especially for the production of specialty lipids. Molecular phylogenetics analysis has revealed several other species that have since been added to the genus.

In January 2019, Yarrowia lipolytica yeast biomass was defined by the European Food Safety Authority as a safe novel food – dried and heat‐killed – with the underlying qualifications that it is widespread in nature, present in the typical environment, may be used as food for people over three years of age (3 grams per day for children under age 10, and 6 grams per day for teens and adults), and may be manufactured as a dietary supplement.

Biology

Habitat

Yarrowia lipolytica has been isolated from various locations (e.g. milled corn fiber tailings or Paris sewers). Often these environments contain an excess of lipids, which can be efficiently utilized by Y. lipolytica as a carbon and energy source. This species is strictly aerobic.

Oleaginous yeast

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Single_cell_state_of_Yarrowia_lipolytica.png" caption="Single cell state of ''Yarrowia lipolytica'' under microscope" alt="Single cell state of Yarrowia lipolytica"] ::

The cells of Y. lipolytica have over 20% fat content, placing it in the group of oleaginous yeasts. Most lipids are stored as triacylglycerides (TAGs). This physiological trait makes this species especially interesting for producing lipid derivates. For example, genetic engineering and process optimization allow it to produce high amounts of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA).

Dimorphism

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fc/Filamentous_cell_state_of_Yarrowia_lipolytica.jpg" caption="Filamentous cell state of ''Yarrowia lipolytica''" alt="Filamentous cell state of Yarrowia lipolytica"] ::

Yarrowia lipolytica has dimorphic growth, which means it can grow in two different phenotypes. The usual form of the cells can be described as round and spherical. When exposed to stressful conditions such as temperature, pH, mechanical or osmotic stress, the cell can switch into a filamentous growth form (also see hyphae).

Genome

The genome of Y. lipolytica consists of around 20.5 Mbp (mega base pairs), encodes for over 7000 genes and is distributed on six chromosomes (named A to F) and the mitochondrial DNA (M). Naturally, there are small differences in the length of the genomes of different strain isolates. Usually hemiascomycetous yeast have a low number of introns, but Y. lipolytica is an exception with about 15% of genes containing introns.

References

References

  1. (1980). "The yeast genus Yarrowia gen. nov". Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
  2. (February 2005). "Yarrowia lipolytica mutants devoid of pyruvate carboxylase activity show an unusual growth phenotype". Eukaryotic Cell.
  3. (2010). "''Yarrowia lipolytica'': A model microorganism used for the production of tailor-made lipids". European Journal of Lipid Science and Technology.
  4. (2013). "Comparative physiology of oleaginous species from the Yarrowia clade". PLOS ONE.
  5. (April 2014). "Yarrowia porcina sp. nov. and Yarrowia bubula f.a. sp. nov., two yeast species from meat and river sediment". Antonie van Leeuwenhoek.
  6. (December 2017). "Fungal Planet description sheets: 625-715". Persoonia.
  7. (14 February 2019). "Safety of ''Yarrowia lipolytica'' yeast biomass as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283". European Food Safety Authority.
  8. Wolf, Klaus. (1996). "Nonconventional Yeasts in Biotechnology".
  9. Kurtzman, Cletus P.. (2011-01-01). "Chapter 82 - Yarrowia van der Walt & von Arx (1980)". Elsevier.
  10. (October 2012). "Yarrowia lipolytica". Yeast.
  11. (February 2015). "Sustainable source of omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid from metabolically engineered Yarrowia lipolytica: from fundamental research to commercial production". Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology.
  12. (December 2002). "Different effectors of dimorphism in Yarrowia lipolytica". Archives of Microbiology.
  13. (2010-06-23). "Detection and analysis of alternative splicing in Yarrowia lipolytica reveal structural constraints facilitating nonsense-mediated decay of intron-retaining transcripts". Genome Biology.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

ascomycota-generadipodascomycetestaxa-described-in-1981