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Effects of 20 Standard Amino Acids on the Growth, Total Fatty Acids Production, and γ-Linolenic Acid Yield in Mucor circinelloides

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Abstract

Twenty standard amino acids were examined as single nitrogen source on the growth, total fatty acids production, and yield of γ-linolenic acid (GLA) in Mucor circinelloides. Of the amino acids, tyrosine gave the highest biomass and lipid accumulation and thus resulted in a high GLA yield with respective values of 17.8 g/L, 23 % (w/w, dry cell weight, DCW), and 0.81 g/L, which were 36, 25, and 72 % higher than when the fungus was grown with ammonium tartrate. To find out the potential mechanism underlying the increased lipid accumulation of M. circinelloides when grown on tyrosine, the activity of lipogenic enzymes of the fungus during lipid accumulation phase was measured. The enzyme activities of glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase, 6-phosphogluconate dehydrogenase, and ATP-citrate lyase were up-regulated, while NADP-isocitrate dehydrogenase was down-regulated by tyrosine during the lipid accumulation phase of the fungus which suggested that these enzymes may be involved in the increased lipid biosynthesis by tyrosine in this fungus.

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Acknowledgments

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31271812, 21276108), the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (863 Program 2012AA022105C), Strategic Mérieux Research Grant, the Program for New Century Excellent Talents (NCET-13-0831), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (31125021), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JUSRP51320B). We thank Professor Colin Ratledge for his critical comments to our manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, 1800 LiHu Road, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Tang, Huaiyuan Zhang, Haiqin Chen, Yong Q. Chen, Wei Chen & Yuanda Song

  2. Synergistic Innovation Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Haiqin Chen, Yong Q. Chen & Wei Chen

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  1. Xin Tang
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  2. Huaiyuan Zhang
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Correspondence to Yuanda Song.

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Tang, X., Zhang, H., Chen, H. et al. Effects of 20 Standard Amino Acids on the Growth, Total Fatty Acids Production, and γ-Linolenic Acid Yield in Mucor circinelloides . Curr Microbiol 69, 899–908 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0671-z

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