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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Dietary Supplementation of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: November 29, 2013
An efficient strategy for screening polyunsaturated fatty acid-producing oleaginous filamentous fungi from soil
Qingwei Yao1, Haiqin Chen1, Shunxian Wang1
1State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, PR China; School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214122, PR China.
Abstract:
Screening oleaginous microorganisms capable of accumulating considerable lipids is essential for industrial lipid production. Here we demonstrated forty-seven filamentous fungal isolates were obtained from eight soil samples using a new screening strategy with both triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC), a redox indicator used for testing oil presence, and cerulenin, an inhibitor of fatty acid synthase (FAS), supplemented in screening medium. Among these fungal isolates, nineteen have high lipid content (>20% dry biomass weight) and were affiliated with the genus Mortierella by morphology identification and phylogenetic analysis based on ITS gene sequences. Notably, one strain designated as SL-4 reached 32% of its biomass weight as lipid, displaying the highest potential. Two candidates with high lipid content as well as biomass production were selected for exploring the effect of different carbon and nitrogen sources on morphology, biomass and lipid accumulation.
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