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Updated: May 3, 2026

Analysis of Neutral Lipid Synthesis in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by Metabolic Labeling and Thin Layer Chromatography
Published on: February 2, 2021
Compositional shift in lipid fractions during lipid accumulation and turnover in Schizochytrium sp
Lu-Jing Ren1, Guan-Nan Sun1, Xiao-Jun Ji1
1State Key Laboratory of Materials-Oriented Chemical Engineering, College of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Nanjing University of Technology, No. 5 Xinmofan Road, Nanjing 210009, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
Single cell oils (SCOs), a complex lipid system, contains neutral lipids (NLs), polar lipids (PLs) and unsaponifiable matters (UMs). To investigate the dynamic changes and the metabolic competition mechanism of different components of SCOs, changes in lipid composition of Schizochytrium sp. were monitored in lipid accumulation and turnover stages. Lipid content could reach 69.98% in biomass during the lipid accumulation stage, while, after the exhaustion of glucose, the content decreased to 45.51% and 20.6g/L non-oil biomass was synthesis. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) were easier to bind with PLs. NLs were preferentially converted to PLs during lipid turnover stage, accompanied by the degradation of saturated fatty acids and the increase of UMs. Meanwhile, a positive correlation between the synthesis of PUFAs and unsaponifiable matters exited in Schizochytrium sp., and increasing the content of UMs from 45 to 100mg/L could increase the PUFA percentage from 64% to 74% effectively.
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