Innovative screening approach for the identification of triacylglycerol accumulating oleaginous strains

• Currently, triacylglycerides (TAG) accumulation in the form of lipid droplets (LDs) in oleaginous microorganisms is of immense importance due to their ability to get transesterified into value-added products in the form of biodiesel. Hence, in order to search for oleaginous microorganisms having high lipid content among a wide range of samples from different niches, there is a compulsive need to develop simple, reliable and rapid methods for screening of TAG accumulating strains. Conventional methods require multistep processes for the isolation, cultivation, extraction and estimation of lipids to identify oleagenic strains. To overcome these challenges, we are proposing an easy, live cellimaging technique for the estimation of lipids via visualization of TAG accumulation in probable strains at the single cell level that gives real-time monitoring of intracellular lipid accumulation in yeasts. In this screening technique, only 100 μl of specific neutral lipid accumulating medium was used to grow the isolated culture in the microtiter plate. The harvested cells were stained with LipidTOX™ Green and visualized by a LED based digital inverted fluorescence microscope. Among 446 yeast colonies screened, maximum lipid producing yeast strains Rhodosporidium kratochvilovae HIMPA1 and Rhodotorula minuta,having supersized lipid body of 5.05 ± 0.87 μm and 4.46 ± 0.61 μm, respectively, were identified as potential candidates for biodiesel production. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of using LipidTOX™ Green for the staining of lipid droplets present in yeast cells as per the literature.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Industriell bioteknik -- Bioprocessteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Industrial Biotechnology -- Bioprocess Technology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Oleaginous microorganisms

Live fluorescence microscopy

Triacylglycerides (TAG)

Lipid droplets (LDs)

LipidTOX™ green

Biodiesel

Biokemisk processteknik

Biochemical Process Engineering

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)