High-titer microbial lipid fermentation and extractive recovery by cell wall-weakened Trichosporon cutaneum strain and wheat straw sugar syrup feedstock.

Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising feedstock for sustainable microbial lipid production; however, its utilization is hindered by low fermentation performance and inefficient lipid recovery. In this study, an integrated strategy combining enzyme-mediated adaptive evolution combined with centrifugal fractionation was employed to generate the oleaginous yeast strain Trichosporon cutaneum YY52E, exhibiting enhanced lipid accumulation and reduced cell wall integrity. The lipid titer reached 60.1 g/L in fed-batch fermentation, with a yield of 0.3 g/g sugars, using wheat straw sugar syrup prepared by dry acid pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, biodetoxification, solid/liquid separation and concentration. Solvent-assisted fermentation coupled with direct solvent extraction enabled 94.2% of lipid recovery without cell harvesting and acid lysis. This study provides an integrated bioprocess for high-titer microbial lipid production and efficient lipid recovery from lignocellulosic biomass.