Zheng Xiaochun, Ledesma-Amaro Rodrigo, Zhao Zongbao Kent, Wang Yanan, Zhao Xin-Qing, Yang Xiaobing
College of Enology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi 712100, China.
Department of Bioengineering and Imperial College Centre for Synthetic Biology, Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein, and UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Hub on Microbial Food, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, U.K.
J Agric Food Chem. 2025 Aug 6;73(31):19157-19173. doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.5c05298. Epub 2025 Jul 23.
Microbial production offers a promising alternative to traditional food production. Red yeasts, which are characterized by fast growth, robustness, and a broad substrate range, have been explored for the production of value-added products such as lipids, carotenoids, enzymes, and sugar alcohols. Particularly, spp. are of great interest for the valorization of waste generated during food processing. However, metabolic engineering of red yeasts has been hindered by insufficient multiomics information mining, an inefficient genetic enabling toolbox, and less-understood unique metabolic features. This review provides an overview of red yeasts, including developments in multiomics biology, the creation of cell factories for food ingredient production, advances in the enabling toolbox of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, and the potential of recycling food waste into valuable products. In addition, we also discuss the remaining challenges and prospective future priorities in exploring red yeasts as cell factories.
微生物生产为传统食品生产提供了一种有前景的替代方案。红酵母具有生长迅速、适应性强和底物范围广的特点，已被用于生产脂质、类胡萝卜素、酶和糖醇等增值产品。特别是，某些红酵母属物种对于食品加工过程中产生的废弃物的价值提升具有重要意义。然而，红酵母的代谢工程受到多组学信息挖掘不足、遗传工程工具盒效率低下以及独特代谢特征了解较少的阻碍。本综述概述了红酵母，包括多组学生物学的发展、用于食品成分生产的细胞工厂的创建、合成生物学和代谢工程的工具盒进展，以及将食品废弃物回收转化为有价值产品的潜力。此外，我们还讨论了将红酵母作为细胞工厂进行探索时仍存在的挑战和未来潜在的优先事项。
