Biotechnological Applications of Thermotolerant Yeasts

Thermotolerant yeasts represent a growing class of microbial cell factories capable of operating at elevated temperatures, offering advantages in process efficiency, reduced cooling costs and lower contamination risk. Species such as Kluyveromyces marxianus combine rapid growth kinetics with the ability to ferment a broad spectrum of sugars, including pentoses derived from lignocellulosic biomass. These yeasts have been engineered for high‐temperature ethanol production, consolidated bioprocessing of complex feedstocks and synthesis of value-added chemicals such as organic acids, enzymes, flavour compounds and fatty acids. Progress in genome editing and synthetic biology has enabled precise pathway optimisation, while adaptive laboratory evolution has enhanced tolerance to ethanol, acids and osmotic stress. Collectively, these innovations position thermotolerant yeasts as versatile platforms for sustainable biomanufacturing across biofuels, biochemicals and biopharmaceutical precursors, with scalable performance under industrially relevant conditions.

Research from Nature Portfolio

Development of a comprehensive genome‐engineering toolkit in a cold- and thermo-tolerant K. marxianus strain has established a fully tractable host for high-temperature bioprocessing. By combining deaminase-mediated targeted mutagenesis (Target-AID) with CRISPR–Cas9, researchers disrupted non-homologous end-joining genes to enhance homology-mediated integration and enabled markerless gene replacement using short homology arms. This approach markedly improves editing efficiency and precision, providing a robust platform for rational strain improvement and rapid construction of production strains tailored for elevated-temperature fermentation and complex metabolic engineering.

Biotechnological Applications of Thermotolerant Yeasts publication trend

The graph below shows the total number of articles in biotechnological applications of thermotolerant yeasts across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).

Technical terms

Thermotolerance: Ability of yeast cells to grow and function efficiently at elevated temperatures.

Lignocellulosic biomass: Plant-derived material composed of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin used as a renewable carbon source.

Consolidated bioprocessing: Integrated approach combining enzyme production, substrate hydrolysis and fermentation in a single microbial platform.

CRISPR–Cas9: Genome-editing system that uses a guide RNA and Cas9 nuclease to introduce targeted DNA double-strand breaks.

Glucose repression: Regulatory mechanism by which the presence of glucose inhibits the expression or activity of enzymes involved in alternative sugar metabolism.

References

1. Development of a comprehensive set of tools for genome engineering in a cold- and thermo-tolerant Kluyveromyces marxianus yeast strain. Scientific Reports (2017).
2. The novel properties of Kluyveromyces marxianus glucose sensor/receptor repressor pathway and the construction of glucose repression-released strains. Microbial Cell Factories (2023).
3. Transcriptomic analysis reveals hub genes and pathways in response to acetic acid stress in Kluyveromyces marxianus during high-temperature ethanol fermentation. Stress Biology (2023).
4. Kluyveromyces marxianus developing ethanol tolerance during adaptive evolution with significant improvements of multiple pathways. Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts (2019).