Potential applications of encapsulated yeasts especially within alginate and chitosan as smart bioreactors and intelligent micro-machines

Although several fundamental applications have been reported for yeast cells and their components as functional vehicles or promising structural ingredients in encapsulation of bioactive compounds; meanwhile, potential applications of encapsulated yeasts (EYs) have been less reviewed. Recently, EYs have received increasing attention for industrial applications in different areas of biotechnology such as bioremediation of toxins or heavy metals, bio-filtration, and biocatalyst or bioethanol production. Yeast cells are mostly encapsulated within alginate, chitosan, and some other polysaccharide-based coating materials. These platforms enable us to enhance survivability of probiotic yeasts in food, feed and gastrointestinal transit, as well as to improve their mucoadhesion and targeted delivery. Furthermore, increased thermo-tolerance and stability of yeasts towards high concentrations of alcohols, as well as their improved yield during industrial processing of different fermented foods have been revealed using encapsulation strategies. These cost-effective and scalable matrices have also several innovative potentials to construct composite of living cells and engineered polymers or cell-in-shell hybrids in order to modify techno-functional and sensory properties of the product, as well as cell immobilization, cell-surface engineering and programmed intelligent coating formation and/or degradation.