Bioengineered red yeast turns wood waste into a valuable fatty acid

Forestry waste can be turned into a high-value fatty acid, thanks to a bright red yeast engineered by University of Alberta researchers.

Using wood-derived sugar as a feedstock, the strain, developed from a yeast called Rhodosporidium toruloides, proved capable of producing punicic acid. 

The discovery offers potential economic wins for the forestry and food industries, says study co-author Guanqun Chen, associate professor in the Faculty of Agricultural, Life & Environmental Sciences and Canada Research Chair in Plant Lipid Biotechnology. 

Derived mainly from the seed oil of pomegranate fruit, punicic acid offers healthy cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties. However, with a very low seed-to-fruit ratio and oil yield, it’s currently not financially feasible to produce for large-scale use in the food industry.

But being able to produce the fatty acid using sugar solution derived from low-value leftovers like wood chips provides both economic and environmental benefits, Chen says, noting that the yeast strain could also be used on agricultural byproducts like canola and wheat straw, after pre-treatment.

“We’ve shown that this engineered strain can serve as an industrial platform for converting large volumes of biomass waste or byproducts into a valuable product, which may open up opportunities for creating high-value nutritional supplements, functional food and animal feed ingredients. 

“That creates additional revenue, improves resource efficiency and can help sustainability for these various industries.”