Unsaturated fatty acids production by Zygomycet fungi growth on plant oils

The increasing application of microbial lipids and fatty acids in various fields of health and industry and their advantages to the proportion of animals and plant lipids has elicited much attention in some research. The aim of this study was the investigation of lipid, biomass, and fatty acid production in Zygomycet fungi including Cunninghamella echinulata, ، Mucor rouxii, Mucor circinillioides and Rhizopus stolonifer in different media cultures containing plant oils (2% of coconut, sesame, olive, and almond oil) as carbon sources. Results showed all of the strains produced more than 25% lipid and C. echinulata is the best lipid producer in 4 strains and the yield of lipid production in olive oil medium was 63 % in this strain. Omega 6 fatty acids like GLA (gamma linoleic acid) and linoleate appeared in all of the media culture. M. rouxii created 9.69 % GLA in olive oil medium. Arachidonic acid and linolenate were other omegas that produce in some oil media. An important point of this study was increased about 2 to 10 times in omega 3 and 6 production in plant oils treated by fungi rather than raw plant oils. It could be concluded that zygomycete fungi are a good candidates for the production of valuable microbial oils and applied to the improvement of quality in dietary and industrial crops.