Heterologous expression systems for lipases: A review

The production of heterologous lipases is one of the most promising strategies to increase the productivity of the bioprocesses and to reduce costs, with the final objective that more industrial lipase applications could be implemented. In this chapter, an overview of the most common microbial expression systems for the overproduction of microbial lipases is presented. Prokaryotic system as Escherichia coli and eukaryotic systems as Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Pichia pastoris are analyzed and compared in terms of productivity, operational, and downstream processing facilities. Finally, an overview of heterologous Candida rugosa and Rhizopus oryzae lipases, two of the most common lipases used in biocatalysis, is presented. In both cases, P. pastoris has been shown as the most promising host system. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media New York.