Process engineering for bioflavour production with metabolically active yeast - a minireview.

Flavours are biologically active molecules of large commercial interest in the food, cosmetics, detergent and pharmaceutical industry. The production of flavours can take place by either extraction from plant materials, chemical synthesis, through biological conversion of precursor molecules or through de novo biosynthesis. The latter alternatives are gaining importance through the rapidly growing fields of systems biology and metabolic engineering giving efficient production hosts for the so-called "bioflavours", which are natural flavour and/or fragrance compounds obtained with cell factories or enzymatic systems. One potential production host for bioflavour is yeast. In this mini-review, we give an overview of bioflavour production in yeast from the process engineering perspective. Two specific examples - production of 2-phenylethanol and vanillin - are used to illustrate process challenges and strategies used.