Abstract: Erythritol is a natural four-carbon sugar alcohol with extensive application value in fields such as foods, pharmaceuticals, and chemical engineering. Currently, its industrial production primarily relies on microbial fermentation using renewable carbon sources as substrates. Yarrowia lipolytica is primarily used as starter culture for the production of erythritol. However, existing erythritol-producing strains commonly suffer from insufficient yield, poor environmental tolerance, and high production costs, which severely constrain the expansion of the scale of the erythritol industry. On this basis, this article focuses on three aspects: breeding strategies for erythritol-producing strains, novel tools and systems biology strategies, and enhancing strain tolerance to environmental stress, aiming to provide a theoretical foundation and technical references for the rational design of high erythritol-producing strains for the industrial production of erythritol.

Key words: erythritol; Yarrowia lipolytica; microbial fermentation; breeding; tolerance