Yarrowia lipolytica is characterized by GRAS (Generally regarded as safe) status, the versatile substrate utilization profile, rapid utilization rates, metabolic diversity and flexibility, the unique abilities to tolerate to extreme environments (acidic, alkaline, hypersaline, heavy metal-pollutions and others) and elevated biosynthesis and secreting capacities. These advantages of Y. lipolytica allow us to consider it as having great ecological significance. Unfortunately, there is still a paucity of relevant review data. This mini-review highlights ecological ubiquity of Y. lipolytica species, their ability to diversify and colonize specialized niches. Different Y. lipolytica strains, native and engineered, are beneficial in degrading many environmental pollutants causing serious ecological problems worldwide. In agriculture has a potential to be a bio-control agent by stimulating plant defense response, and an eco-friendly bio-fertilizer. Engineered strains of Y. lipolytica have become a very promising platform for eco-friendly production of biofuel, commodities, chemicals and secondary metabolites of plant origin, obtaining which by other method were limited or economically infeasible, or were accompanied by stringent environmental problems. Perspectives to use potential of Y. lipolytica's capacities for industrial scale production of valuable compounds in an eco-friendly manner are proposed.

Since thymoquinone (2-isopropyl-5-methylbenzoquinone) isolation from Nigella sativa in 1963, various studies have reported on its diverse pharmacological properties. However, despite its versatile healing abilities, clinical trials involving the use of thymoquinone have not been initiated due to its poor bioavailability. Many attempts have been made to improve the therapeutic efficacy of thymoquinone by synthesizing analogs, as well as by developing nanotechnology-based delivery systems. We hypothesized that some of the issues with thymoquinone delivery and bioavailability could be resolved by targeted delivery to mitochondria of thymoquinone derivatives conjugated to the penetrating lipophilic cationic triphenylphosphonium fragment. As mitochondria are the major site of reactive oxygen species generation in the cell, such a membranotropic thymoquinone derivative can act as an efficient antioxidant or prooxidant depending on the concentration used. Based on these theoretical considerations, a novel mitochondria-targeted compound, SkQThy, was synthesized and its effects on rat liver mitochondria and yeast cells were examined. SkQThy was found to exhibit pronounced antioxidant activity in mammalian mitochondria and yeast cells, decreasing hydrogen peroxide production in mitochondria, as well as preventing prooxidant-induced oxidative stress and mitochondrial fragmentation in yeast cells and increasing cell viability. Moreover, SkQThy proved itself to be the most efficient mitochondria-targeted antioxidant within the SkQs family, showing good therapeutic potential.

The results of numerical thermo-hydrodynamic simulation of Koshelev geothermal system are presented. The question of the possibility of the existence of a shallow geothermal reservoir at the Lower-Koshelev thermal field is briefly investigated. The simulation results refute the assumption of the existence of a near-surface geothermal reservoir. It is more likely that in this part of the geothermal system there is a region of permeable rock that is relatively narrow in cross section and which performs the function of a conduit. The size and shape of the apical part of the steam zone under the Lower-Koshelev thermal field are controlled by the diameter of the conduit. Results of simulations with a conduit diameter of 1200 and 500 m are presented. The latter is more likely, since it best matches the field data.

Mitochondria play a crucial role in energy production, general cell metabolism, cell signaling, and apoptosis. Mitochondria are also the main source of reactive oxygen species, especially in the case of their dysfunction. Therefore, damaged or even superfluous mitochondria not required for normal cell functioning represent risk factors and should be removed in order to maintain cell homeostasis. Mitochondria removal occurs via mitophagy, a type of selective autophagy (from Greek autos, self and phagein, to eat) that takes place in parallel with mitochondrial biogenesis and other processes. This review outlines general views on autophagy and mitophagy and summarizes information on the autophagy-related (Atg) proteins and their complexes involved in these processes. Yeast, especially Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is a convenient model system for studying molecular mechanisms of mitophagy because yeast genome, transcriptome, and proteome have been well characterized and because genetic manipulations with yeast are relatively simple and fast. Furthermore, yeast contain a number of orthologs of human proteins. Mitophagy in yeast is promoted by various factors, such as starvation, aging, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, signaling proteins, and modification of mitochondrial proteins. In this review, we discuss molecular mechanisms underlying mitophagy and its regulation in yeast and present examples of relationships between mitophagy and ubiquitination–deubiquitination processes, as well as between mitophagy and other types of autophagy.