Mucor circinelloides: a model organism for oleaginous fungi and its potential applications in bioactive lipid production

Abstract

Microbial oils have gained massive attention because of their significant role in industrial applications. Currently plants and animals are the chief sources of medically and nutritionally important fatty acids. However, the ever-increasing global demand for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) cannot be met by the existing sources. Therefore microbes, especially fungi, represent an important alternative source of microbial oils being investigated. Mucor circinelloides—an oleaginous filamentous fungus, came to the forefront because of its high efficiency in synthesizing and accumulating lipids, like γ-linolenic acid (GLA) in high quantity. Recently, mycelium of M. circinelloides has acquired substantial attraction towards it as it has been suggested as a convenient raw material source for the generation of biodiesel via lipid transformation. Although M. circinelloides accumulates lipids naturally, metabolic engineering is found to be important for substantial increase in their yields. Both modifications of existing pathways and re-formation of biosynthetic pathways in M. circinelloides have shown the potential to improve lipid levels. In this review, recent advances in various important metabolic aspects of M. circinelloides have been discussed. Furthermore, the potential applications of M. circinelloides in the fields of antioxidants, nutraceuticals, bioremediation, ethanol production, and carotenoids like beta carotene and astaxanthin having significant nutritional value are also deliberated.

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

“…Thus, GLA production by oleaginous microorganisms is a promising alternative to plant-based production. Mucor circinelloides , an oleaginous fungus, has been broadly employed to study GLA production, and it has been chosen as a model oleaginous microbe to produce GLA in various studies ( 7 – 11 ).…”

Eco-friendly production of nutraceutical and cosmeceutical fatty acids by oleaginous fungus Lichtheimia hyalospora UCP 1266 using renewable substrates

“…The term single cell oils (SCOs), also named microbial lipids or microbial oils, was created by Ratledge & Wynn since 1974, to identify those lipids of single-cell organismsmicroorganismsthat would be suitable for consumption by human and animal (Ratledge, 2004). Thus, they are considered as new sources of nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals (products applied topically) or nutricosmetics (products that are ingested orally) of great value for human use (Hyde, et al, 2010;Béligon, et al, 2016;Galán, et al, 2020;Kothri, et al, 2020;Shah, et al, 2021;Fazili, et al, 2022).…”

“…In this context, fatty acids commonly found in cosmetics can be produced by fungi (Ward & Singh, 2005;Hyde, et al, 2010). Filamentous fungi of Mucorales and Mortieralles orders, such as Mortierella sp., Mortierella alpina, Umbelopsis isabellina, Cunninghamella echinulata, Mucor circinelloides and M. hiemalis, are more intensively studied for the production of essential fatty acids (Li, et al, 2015;Zhao, et al, 2015;Kosa, et al, 2018;Kikukawa, et al, 2018;Fazili, 2022). These microorganisms produce desaturases by introducing multiple double bonds into the esterified acyl chains at the beta position in membrane lipids (Bellou, et al, 2016).…”

Bioconversion of agro-industrial by-products into microbial lipids and bioemulsifier by Absidia cylindrospora var. cylindrospora UCP 1301

“…Recent studies indicated that the production of microbial oils by bacteria, yeasts and fungi becomes, in fact, an ecological and economically viable alternative, which can replace biodiesel, since these microorganisms can reach high levels of lipids, regardless of the climate, seasonality and high labor costs (Montero-Rodríguez, et al, 2016;Dvoretsky, et al, 2018;Carmona-Cabello, et al, 2021). Several microorganisms have the ability to accumulate more than 20% of lipids in their dry weight, and this value can reach up to 70% during the period of metabolic stress (Bao, et al, 2021;Fazili, et al, 2022). They are commonly called oleaginous microorganisms or single cell oils (SCOs), and have an important role in replacing vegetable biodiesel (Berikten & Hoşgün, 2022).…”