Metabolic engineering of the non-conventional yeast Pichia ciferrii for production of rare sphingoid bases

► Identification of sphingolipid biosynthesis genes in P. ciferrii. ► Isolation of a syringomycin-resistant strain producing predominantly sphinganine. ► Construction of an efficient sphingosine-producing P. ciferrii strain. ► Production of 0.9 g acetylated sphingosine per liter in lab-scale fermentation. ► Suppression of by-product formation by inactivating the SLD1 gene.