Yeast Cell Factory for Production of Biomolecules

In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur first demonstrated the relationship between wine fermentation and yeast, which was later studied by different scientists around the world and evolved through continuous experiments. Now, it is the one of the key industrial microbes which is used as a host to produce a variety of biochemicals like biofuels, insulin, hepatitis B surface antigen, platelet-derived growth factor, urate oxidase, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), IFNα2b, glucagon-like peptides, etc. Different prokaryotes (such as Escherichia coli) as well as eukaryotes (like yeast) have been developed as cell factories to produce recombinant products. Commonly used microbial hosts are E. coli, Bacillus subtilis, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and Pichia pastoris. This chapter highlights different yeast (S. cerevisiae, Pichia pastoris, Hansenula polymorpha, Yarrowia lipolytica, Kluyveromyces lactis, and Schizosaccharomyces pombe) that have been utilized as microbial cell factories to produce several biomolecules. In addition, it also covered how the diverse types of promoters have been used to enhance the production of biomolecules.