Engineered microbes and methods for microbial oil overproduction from cellulosic materials

An isolated oleaginous cell comprising a nucleic acid construct that increases expression of:

• a xylose reductase (XYL1) gene product and a xylitol dehydrogenase (XYL2) gene product;
• wherein the nucleic acid construct comprises an intron and
• (a) an expression cassette comprising a nucleic acid sequence encoding the XYL1 and XYL2 gene products under the control of a suitable homologous or heterologous promoter, and/or
• (b) a nucleic acid sequence that modulates the level of expression of the XYL1 and XYL2 gene products when inserted into the genome of the cell.