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7.3 Production of PUFA from Fungal Cells
The first step in the production of commercial-level PUFA is identification of a
robust fungal strain that is capable of accumulating sufficient amount of oil in its
cell. The current advances in biotechnology enable high-throughput screening of
fungal strains with a range of substrate and growth conditions in microtitre plates
(Kosa et al. 2018). However, to produce a sustainable PUFA-producing cell biofactory, the metabolic pathway of oil synthesis in oleaginous cells is often redesigned
to account for some of the following reasons:
• To increase the amount and type of desired PUFA
• To enable the fungal cells to utilize low-cost substrates
• To ease the downstream processing steps of lipid purification from these cells
Some of the common genetic engineering approaches involved in metabolic
engineering of oleaginous fungi are discussed further.
Fig. 7.2 Schematic representation of the effect of nitrogen limitation in the synthesis of fatty acids
in oleaginous fungi
7 Production of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids by Fungal Biofactories…
7.3 Production of PUFA from Fungal Cells
The first step in the production of commercial-level PUFA is identification of a
robust fungal strain that is capable of accumulating sufficient amount of oil in its
cell. The current advances in biotechnology enable high-throughput screening of
fungal strains with a range of substrate and growth conditions in microtitre plates
(Kosa et al. 2018). However, to produce a sustainable PUFA-producing cell biofactory, the metabolic pathway of oil synthesis in oleaginous cells is often redesigned
to account for some of the following reasons:
• To increase the amount and type of desired PUFA
• To enable the fungal cells to utilize low-cost substrates
• To ease the downstream processing steps of lipid purification from these cells
Some of the common genetic engineering approaches involved in metabolic
engineering of oleaginous fungi are discussed further.
Fig. 7.2 Schematic representation of the effect of nitrogen limitation in the synthesis of fatty acids
in oleaginous fungi
7 Production of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids by Fungal Biofactories…