Lipomyces starkeyi: Its current status as a potential oil producer

Culturing of oleaginous yeasts has been studied extensively utilizing various substrates as a nutrient, such as industrial or agricultural residues. Despite many choices of oleaginous yeasts, attention should be given to specific species so that real application can be implemented, rather than on exploring new oleaginous yeasts with higher oil-producing ability. Lipomyces starkeyi is an oleaginous yeast that can be cultured using a wide range of feedstocks. It is worth noting that L. starkeyi can produce a high amount of lipids with a good proportion for biodiesel purpose and its ability to re-utilize small amount of its lipid, makes it superior compared to other oleaginous yeasts. This review offers a comprehensive summary of L. starkeyi, its characteristics and the type of nutrients it can assimilate, brief reviews of common fermentation modes used, and strategies for enhancing lipid accumulation will be discussed. Also, common transesterification methods, as well as possibility/future prospect of oleaginous yeast utilization to produce single cell oil will also be discussed. This review hopefully could help bridging the gap between theoretical and actual potentials of oleaginous yeasts in producing lipids as feedstock for biodiesel production.