Composition of fats,produced by lipomyces starkeyi,under various conditions

Summary The yeast Lipomyces starkeyi was grown in liquid media with different carbon sources. The quantity of fat formed in the yeast cells amounted to 55% of the weight of dry yeast with molasses and to 35% with glucose as the carbon source. The composition of the fat, synthesized by the yeast, did not change very much on using different carbon sources. The main components were oleic and palmitic acid; stearic, linoleic and palmitoleic acid were present in lower concentrations.During cultivation, however, there was a change in the composition of the mixture of acids obtained from the yeast fat. The percentage of linoleic acid decreased from 10% to 2.0%, while oleic acid increased from 47% to 62%.The CoA content of the fat synthesizing cells during cultivation was ca. 95 units for a short period, but in general it did not exceed 30–40 units per gram dry yeast.