Isolation and Characterization of a Docosahexaenoic Acid-Phospholipids Producing Microorganism Crypthecodinium sp. D31.

Thirty-four strains of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-producing microorganisms were newly isolated from brackish areas in Japan. These strains showing various compositions of fatty acids. Especially, the fatty acids produced by one of the strains, named D31, had a high DHA content (over 60 % of the total fatty acids) and the simple fatty acid composition (16:0, 18:0, 18:1 and DHA without any other polyunsaturated acids). Although most oleaginous microorganisms accumulate DHA as triacylglycerol, the strain D31 accumulated DHA mainly as a polar lipid (79.4 % of total DHA), especially as phosphatidylcholine (71.4 % of polar DHA). This strain D31 was identified as a related species of Crypthecodinium cohnii on the basis of phylogenetic analysis. Crypthecodinium sp. D31 showed high DHA productivity when cultivated in a medium containing glycerol as the carbon source and a mixture of yeast extract and polypeptone as the nitrogen sources, with a salinity that was equivalent to 50 % of that of seawater and a pH in the acidic range (<pH 6.0). Crypthecodinium sp. D31 is considered as a promising producer of high-purity DHA-containing phospholipids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]