Microbes: A Hidden Treasure of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Abstract

Microbes have gained a lot of attention for their potential in producing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). PUFAs are gaining scientific interest due to their important health-promoting effects on higher organisms including humans. The current sources of PUFAs (animal and plant) have associated limitations that have led to increased interest in microbial PUFAs as most reliable alternative source. The focus is on increasing the product value of existing oleaginous microbes or discovering new microbes by implementing new biotechnological strategies in order to compete with other sources. The multidisciplinary approaches, including metabolic engineering, high-throughput screening, tapping new microbial sources, genome-mining as well as co-culturing and elicitation for the production of PUFAs, have been considered and discussed in this review. The usage of agro-industrial wastes as alternative low-cost substrates in fermentation for high-value single-cell oil production has also been discussed. Multidisciplinary approaches combined with new technologies may help to uncover new microbial PUFA sources that may have nutraceutical and biotechnological importance.

Coculturing of Mucor plumbeus and Bacillus subtilis bacterium as an efficient fermentation strategy to enhance fungal lipid and gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) production

“…Oleaginous microbes, including fungi, are considered an alternative source for lipid derivatives, particularly PUFAs. Many important fungal lipids have been studied using different approaches such as metabolic engineering, high-throughput screening, genome mining, and leveraging new microbial resources 24 , 25 . While lipid production by several oleaginous candidates has been extensively studied, the coculture method has not been explored for bacterial-fungal derived lipids.…”

Sunlight Inactivation of Enveloped Viruses in Clear Water

“…17,21−23 The number of polyunsaturated lipids present in a viral lipid envelope may vary across and within virus species since the lipids are obtained from the viral host cell. 17,24,25 The contribution of sunlight-induced damage to envelope photoinactivation is presently unknown.…”

“…The presence of a viral envelope could potentially exacerbate viral inactivation, as it represents an additional site for sunlight-induced damage. Viral envelopes may be composed of polyunsaturated lipids that are particularly susceptible to lipid peroxidation caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS). ,− ROS can be produced by the interaction of UVA and UVB light with both endogenous and exogenous sensitizers. ,− The number of polyunsaturated lipids present in a viral lipid envelope may vary across and within virus species since the lipids are obtained from the viral host cell. ,, The contribution of sunlight-induced damage to envelope photoinactivation is presently unknown.…”

Evaluation of Different Standard Amino Acids to Enhance the Biomass, Lipid, Fatty Acid, and γ-Linolenic Acid Production in Rhizomucor pusillus and Mucor circinelloides

“…They have frequently been found to produce oils with compositional similarities to plants and fish ( 3 ). Nutritionally important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), such as γ-linolenic acid (GLA), have been shown in various studies to be beneficial in the avoidance and treatment of multiple diseases ( 4 , 5 ). Microorganisms have several advantages over traditional plants for producing GLA-rich oils, including simple cultural conditions, a high growth rate, and high yields that are not affected by changes in climatic conditions ( 6 ).…”