Ogataea (Hansenula) polymorpha is a non-conventional yeast with some unique characteristics, including fast-growth, thermostability and broad substrate spectrum. Other than common application for protein production, O. polymorpha is attracting great interest for chemical and protein production from methanol, a promising feedstock for the next generation biomanufacturing due to its abundant sources and excellent characteristics. Benefiting from the development of synthetic biology, it has been engineered to produce value-added chemicals by extensively rewiring cellular metabolism.

Recently, our group was invited to publish a review titled “Ogataea polymorpha as a next generation chassis for industrial biotechnology” in Trends in Biotechnology. This review discusses recently developed synthetic biology tools of O. polymorpha. The advances of chemicals production and systems biology were reviewed comprehensively. Finally, the review looks ahead to the developments of bio-manufacturing in O. polymorpha to make an overall understanding of this chassis for academia and industry. (Text and image by Linfeng Xie)