Harnessing Yeast Biodiversity for Advanced Industrial Applications

Abstract

Budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae and various non-conventional species are widely applied in the production of diverse industrial products, including pharmaceuticals, biofuels, biochemicals, and biomaterials, due to their rich natural and engineered biodiversity. This review summarizes recent advances in harnessing yeast biodiversity for industrial applications, including natural yeast diversity derived from ecological adaptation and genetic variation across diverse environments, and artificial diversity generated through adaptive laboratory evolution, metabolic or epigenetic engineering, and synthetic biology. We highlight the establishment of strain-level culture libraries and extremophilic yeasts as models for stress adaptation. In addition, we emphasize that the integration of multi-omics analysis, AI-assisted enzyme and strain engineering, and process optimization strategies are critical for the fully exploration and utilization of yeast biodiversity for efficient bioproduction.