Effects of nitrogen on the lipid and carotenoid accumulation of oleaginous yeast <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sporidiobolus pararoseus</Emphasis>

Nitrogen limited but carbon excess condition was used to obtain high cellular lipid content and production. The maximum lipid production was 51 g/L, the lipid content in the dry cell was 60 %, and the lipid productivity was 0.53 g/L/h. In the fermentation, the content of lipid was raised from 20 % of dry cell weight to 60 %, and the proportion of oleic acid was raised from 66.8 to 72.5 %. Meanwhile, the metabolism of carotenoids switched to torulene, and its proportion was raised from 30 to 58 %. This was according to torulene had the better antioxidant ability than β-carotene to protect the strain from oxidative damage proved by their ABTS* radical scavenging activity and lipid peroxidation inhibition ability. Sporidiobolus pararoseus lipid was a good source of lipid not only because of its high oleic acid composition, but also the antioxidant ability of carotenoids in the lipid.