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Compositional profiles of Rhodosporidium toruloides cells under nutrient limitation

  • Applied microbial and cell physiology
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Abstract

Lipid production by the red yeast Rhodosporidium toruloides was explored under nutrient limitation. To determine the compositional profiles of R. toruloides cells, samples were prepared using a continuous cultivation process under nutrient limitation and analyzed via several methods, including Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Under nitrogen limitation, as the dilution rate increased, the cellular lipid content decreased but the carbohydrate and protein contents increased. Under carbon limitation, the cellular lipid, protein, and carbohydrate contents remained relatively constant at the different dilution rates. Moreover, the cellular elemental composition was essentially identical under nitrogen and carbon limitation at a high dilution rate of 0.20 h−1. We also analyzed the consumed carbon to nitrogen (C/N) under different nutrition conditions. The results indicated that the consumed C/N had a major influence on cell metabolism and product formation, which contributed to our understanding of the physiological characteristics of R. toruloides.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Key Technology Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2014BAD02B02), State Key Laboratory of Motor Vehicle Biofuel Technology (KFKT2014009), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (21325627) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Biotechnology, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, CAS, 457 Zhongshan Rd., Dalian, 116023, People’s Republic of China

    Hongwei Shen, Xibin Zhang, Yanan Wang, Xue Yu, Xiaobing Yang & Zongbao K. Zhao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Motor Vehicle Biofuel Technology, Nanyang, 437000, People’s Republic of China

    Hongwei Shen

  3. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430081, People’s Republic of China

    Zhiwei Gong

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  1. Hongwei Shen
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Correspondence to Hongwei Shen.

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Shen, H., Zhang, X., Gong, Z. et al. Compositional profiles of Rhodosporidium toruloides cells under nutrient limitation. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 101, 3801–3809 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-017-8157-0

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