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© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
X. Dai et al. (eds.), Fungi in Sustainable Food Production, Fungal Biology,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64406-2_7
Chapter 7
Production of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
by Fungal Biofactories and Their
Application in Food Industries
Rishibha Gupta and Smriti Gaur
Abbreviations
ACC
acetyl-CoA carboxylase
ACL
ATP-citrate lyase
ALA
alpha-linoleic acid
ARA
arachidonic acid
C/N
carbon/nitrogen ratio
DHA
docosahexaenoic acid
EPA
eicosapentaenoic acid
GLA
gamma (γ)-linoleic acid
GRAS generally regarded as safe
LA
linoleic acid
PUFA polyunsaturated fatty acid
TCA
tricarboxylic acid
7.1 Introduction
In the early twentieth century, the role of lipids as an essential component in our diet
was largely unknown. They were considered more as non-essential caloric content
of food that can be replaced by increasing the carbohydrate content of the food.
However, the discovery of linoleic acid as an essential fatty acid in the diet of rats
by George and Mildred Burr marked the beginning of a new era of lipid research. It
was found that rats fed with fat-deficient diet developed certain diseases and skin
disorders which were cured by supplementation of linoleic acid in their diet. The
latter studies soon began to highlight the significance of linoleic and other fatty
R. Gupta · S. Gaur (*)
Department of Biotechnology, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, India
e-mail: smriti.gaur@jiit.ac.in