Bioconversion of volatile fatty acids into microbial lipids by Yarrowia lipolytica

• Autor(a) principal: Pereira, Ana Sofia
• Data de Publicação: 2018
• Outros Autores: Miranda, Sílvia M., Lopes, Marlene, Belo, Isabel
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/1822/57772
• topic: Microbial lipids; Volatile fatty acid; Yarrowia lipolytica

Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) are short chain fatty acids that can be obtained from organic wastes through acidogenic fermentation and can be used as carbon source for microbial lipids production. The bioconversion of acetate, propionate and butyrate into microbial lipids by Yarrowia lipolytica W29 was evaluated, and the yeast shown the ability to grow using VFA as carbon source and accumulate lipids intracellularly (around 5 % of dry cell mass). The addition of a co-substrate (glucose or glycerol) to VFA-based medium led to an enhancement of cellular growth and lipid content of the cells. The highest lipids concentration of around 1 g/L was obtained in batch cultures carried out with a mixture of VFAs and glycerol. Notwithstanding the low lipid content obtained in this work, Y. lipolytica demonstrated the ability to metabolize VFAs and convert them to microbial lipids, which can be used for biodiesel production.