A comparative review of adaptive laboratory evolution in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Yarrowia lipolytica: mechanistic understanding, biotechnological applications, and industrial prospects

Adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) is a powerful technique in yeast strain development, and it also helps in the understanding of microbial adaptations and development of robust strains for industrial biotechnology. Adaptive mutations enable strains to withstand stressors found in industrial processing, namely high ethanol concentration, temperature fluctuations, oxidative stress, high osmotic pressure, and presence of inhibitors. The yeast S. cerevisiae is still often linked to high-titer ethanol production and stress resistance, while Y. lipolytica has complementary advantageous characteristics mainly in lipid accumulation and ability to consume non-conventional carbon sources like glycerol and waste oils. The industrial applications of ALE consist of the production of biofuels, lipids, organic acids, and value-added biochemicals. These applications, therefore, strengthen the circularity principle of the bioeconomy by enabling the upcycling of waste streams through novel management practices. Hence, ALE serves as a versatile platform for analysis of genotype-phenotype correlations, promoting sustainable and economically viable processes in industrial bio-procedures. This review article provides a comparative and comprehensive study of ALE in S. cerevisiae and Y. lipolytica , which synthesizes evolutionary principles, strain properties, mechanistic understanding, and adaptive significance. Moreover, the progress achieved by ALE is also discussed in the context of industrial and biotechnological applications. Lastly, future directions are addressed, highlighting the integration of automation, standardization, machine learning, genome-scale modeling, and CRISPR-mediated rational engineering to mitigate major bottlenecks and make ALE less variable and more scalable.