Yarrowia lipolytica is one of the most important non-conventional yeasts that belongs to the
Dipodascaceae family of hemiascomycetous fungi. Y. lipolytica is used for both academic and
biotechnological applications. Respect to biotech traits, Y. lipolytica is widely used in production of singlecell
protein, organic acids and enzymes, also it utilized as heterologous protein expression system, and
bioremediation issues, among others. On the other hand, Y. lipolytica has become a model used to study
several biological themes such as: dimorphism, protein secretion, gene manipulation, protein expression,
peroxisome biogenesis, physiology, genetics, degradation of hydrophobic substrates, and lipid
accumulation, etc. Y. lipolytica is a dimorphic organism that grows as a mixture of yeast-like and short
mycelial cells. This behavior is influenced by pH, carbon and nitrogen sources, blood serum, citrate,
polyamines and anaerobic stress. In the present chapter, we review many important regulators involved in
the dimorphic switch in Y. lipolytica. All the knowledge about the yeast-to-hypha transition that has been
obtained from this non-pathogenic yeast, providing information that undoubtedly will be useful for the
understanding of this phenomenon in important pathogenic organisms.
Keywords: Yarrowia lipolytica, biotechnology, dimorphism, morphogenesis, polyamines, hyphae, yeast,
pH, Pal/Rim pathway, non-conventional yeast, cell polarity, secretion.
