Wax Ester and Triacylglycerol Inclusions

The High Plasticity of Nonpathogenic Mycobacterium brumae Induces Rapid Changes in Its Lipid Profile during Pellicle Maturation: The Potential of This Bacterium as a Versatile Cell Factory for Lipid Compounds of Therapeutic Interest

“…WEs also act as depots for toxic or useless fatty acids during the growth and storage of evaporation-resistant lipids to maintain a basic water supply [ 41 , 42 ]. WE degradation occurs in growth-accommodating environments and under carbon limitation [ 43 ], which could correlate with the medium-mature pellicle development in our study, in which WEs degraded at the same time that the storage of acylglycerols is enhanced. At the mature state of the pellicle (11 days), different acylglycerols compatible with the TAGs in the ILIs predominantly developed during the stationary growth phase, appearing in all M. brumae cultures.…”

New Insights into Microbial Wax Ester Biosynthesis, Natural Occurrence and Adaptive Role

“…The accumulation of storage lipids is advantageous for cell survival in natural habitats and the capability for their synthesis may provide a strong advantage during evolution. Wax esters (WE) are a major class of storage lipid compounds synthesized by bacteria in which they can have different physiological functions such as energy and carbon storage, deposit for toxic or useless cellular metabolites and resistance towards desiccation (Steinbüchel and Wältermann, 2020).…”