Abstract: Abstract: The non conventional oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica was used as a starting strain. Three lycopene biosynthetic genes (crtE, crtB, crtI) from Pantoea agglomerans were introduced and coexpressed in the auxotrophic Y. lipolytica strain Po1f. In order to systematically investigate the metabolic functions of these genes in Y. lipolytica, single copy (pINA1269) and multi copy (pINA1312) integrative plasmids were used to regulate the expression level of the crtE, crtB and crtI genes, under the control of the hp4d promoter and an XPR2 terminator. Eight lycopene producing recombinant Y. lipolytica strains were therefore successfully obtained, among which five strains (Po1f 1269IBE 1312、Po1f 1312E 1269IB、Po1f 1312B 1269IE、Po1f 1312I 1269EB、Po1f 1312IBE 1269) were further investigated. The highest production of about 0.9 mg of lycopene per gram of dry cell weight was achieved for the strain Po1f 1312E 1269IB coexpressed with multi copy crtE and single copy crtB and crtI genes.