Bioconversion of acetate, a byproduct
generated in industrial processes,
into microbial lipids using oleaginous yeasts offers a promising alternative
for the economic utilization of acetate-containing waste streams.
However, high acetate concentrations will inhibit microbial growth
and metabolism. In this study, the acetate utilization capability
of Yarrowia lipolytica PO1f was successively
improved by overexpressing the key enzyme of acetyl-CoA synthetase
(ACS), which resulted in an accumulation of 9.2% microbial lipids
from acetate in shake flask fermentation. By further overexpressing
the second key enzymes of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACC1) and fatty
acid synthase (FAS) in Y. lipolytica, the lipid content was increased to 25.7% from acetate. Finally,
the maximum OD600 of 29.2 and a lipid content of 41.7%
were obtained with the engineered strain by the adoption of cosubstrate
(glycerol and acetate) fed-batch fermentation, which corresponded
to an increase of 68 and 95%, respectively. These results presented
a promising strategy for economic and efficient microbial lipid production
from the waste acetate.