A multi-vitamin auxotrophic yeast of Torulopsis glabrata was the most competitive strain for industrial production of pyruvate. Given its genomic characterizations and physiological functions, it was an efficient way to redirect carbon flux to the target metabolites through manipulating nutritional and environmental conditions, intracellular cofactor form and level. In this review, we summarized the progress on the elucidation and manipulation of physiological function of T. glabrata. Furthermore, we also evaluated the potential of T. glabrata as cell factory for production of fine chemicals.