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Applications of Oleaginous Fungi

Lipomyces tetrasporus, Patricia SliningerEdited by Dr Alexander Idnurm (U Melbourne, Australia) and Dr Pat Slininger (USDA, USA).

Oleaginous fungi are species that naturally accumulate remarkably high concentrations of lipids: lipids comprise over 20% and potentially higher than 85% of their dry weight. These species have a wide suite of applications, including in biodiesel production, as supplements in food, and in medicine. Several of these fungi have been identified and characterized, being found in the phyla Ascomycota, Basidiomycota and Mucoromycota thereby indicating that lipid accumulation strategies are diverse and have evolved on a number of occasions. There is currently considerable untapped potential in this research area, including in the discovery of new species, novel lipid products, the genetic manipulations to alter lipid profiles and production levels in multiple species, fermentation engineering, as well as the exploration of other biotechnology and bioengineering applications.

This collection is published in Fungal Biology and Biotechnology (see journal Aims and scope here) and Microbial Cell Factories (Aims and scope here). 

Submissions should be formatted according to the journal guidelines of Fungal Biology and Biotechnology or the journal guidelines of Microbial Cell Factories. Please indicate clearly in the cover letter and as part of the online submission form that the manuscript is to be considered for this collection. 

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  1. Microbial oils have gained massive attention because of their significant role in industrial applications. Currently plants and animals are the chief sources of medically and nutritionally important fatty acid...

    Authors: Abu Bakr Ahmad Fazili, Aabid Manzoor Shah, Xinyi Zan, Tahira Naz, Shaista Nosheen, Yusuf Nazir, Samee Ullah, Huaiyuan Zhang and Yuanda Song
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2022 21:29
  2. Lovastatin is one of the first statins to be extensively used for its cholesterol-lowering ability. It is commercially produced by fermentation. Species belonging to the genus Aspergillus are well-studied fungi t...

    Authors: Naganandhini Srinivasan, Kiruthika Thangavelu and Sivakumar Uthandi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2022 21:22
  3. Oleaginous microorganisms are sustainable alternatives for the production of biodiesel. Among them, oleaginous fungi are known for their rapid growth, short life cycles, no light requirement, easy scalability,...

    Authors: Naganandhini Srinivasan, Kiruthika Thangavelu, Ashika Sekar, B. Sanjeev and Sivakumar Uthandi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2021 20:179
  4. Biodiesel is an eco-friendly and renewable energy source and a valuable substitute for petro-diesel. Sago processing wastewater (SWW), a by-product of the cassava processing industry, has starch content rangin...

    Authors: Kiruthika Thangavelu, Pugalendhi Sundararaju, Naganandhini Srinivasan and Sivakumar Uthandi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2021 20:167
  5. Fatty acid-based substances play an important role in many products, from food supplements to pharmaceutical products and biofuels. The production of fatty acids, mainly in their esterified form as triacylglyc...

    Authors: Simon Arhar, Gabriela Gogg-Fassolter, Mojca Ogrizović, Klavdija Pačnik, Katharina Schwaiger, Mia Žganjar, Uroš Petrovič and Klaus Natter
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2021 20:147
  6. Oleaginous filamentous fungi can accumulate large amount of cellular lipids and potentially serve as a major source of oleochemicals for food, feed, chemical, pharmaceutical, and transport industries. Transest...

    Authors: Anne Marie Langseter, Simona Dzurendova, Volha Shapaval, Achim Kohler, Dag Ekeberg and Boris Zimmermann
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2021 20:59
  7. Mucor circinelloides WJ11 is a high-lipid producing strain and an excellent producer of γ-linolenic acid (GLA) which is crucial for human health. We have previously identified genes that encode for AMP-activated...

    Authors: Shaista Nosheen, Tahira Naz, Junhuan Yang, Syed Ammar Hussain, Abu Bakr Ahmad Fazili, Yusuf Nazir, Shaoqi Li, Hassan Mohamed, Wu Yang, Kiren Mustafa and Yuanda Song
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2021 20:52
  8. In an effort to ensure future energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create domestic jobs, the US has invested in technologies to develop sustainable biofuels and bioproducts from renewable carbo...

    Authors: Gina M. Geiselman, James Kirby, Alexander Landera, Peter Otoupal, Gabriella Papa, Carolina Barcelos, Eric R. Sundstrom, Lalitendu Das, Harsha D. Magurudeniya, Maren Wehrs, Alberto Rodriguez, Blake A. Simmons, Jon K. Magnuson, Aindrila Mukhopadhyay, Taek Soon Lee, Anthe George…
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:208
  9. Lipids from oleaginous yeasts emerged as a sustainable alternative to vegetable oils and animal fat to produce biodiesel, the biodegradable and environmentally friendly counterpart of petro-diesel fuel. To dev...

    Authors: Francesca Martani, Letizia Maestroni, Mattia Torchio, Diletta Ami, Antonino Natalello, Marina Lotti, Danilo Porro and Paola Branduardi
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:204
  10. Xylitol is a commercially important chemical with multiple applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. According to the US Department of Energy, xylitol is one of the top twelve platform chemicals ...

    Authors: Ashish A. Prabhu, Dominic J. Thomas, Rodrigo Ledesma-Amaro, Gary A. Leeke, Angel Medina, Carol Verheecke-Vaessen, Frederic Coulon, Deepti Agrawal and Vinod Kumar
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:121
  11. The GRAS and oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica (Y. lipolytica) is an attractive cell factory for the production of chemicals and biofuels. The production of many natural products of commercial interest have be...

    Authors: Yanping Lu, Qingyu Yang, Zhanglin Lin and Xiaofeng Yang
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:49
  12. Yarrowia lipolytica is an oleaginous yeast that can be genetically engineered to produce lipid and non-lipid biochemicals from a variety of feedstocks. Metabolic engineering of this organism usually requires gene...

    Authors: Maureen Hamilton, Andrew L. Consiglio, Kyle MacEwen, A. Joe Shaw and Vasiliki Tsakraklides
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2020 19:22
  13. Polyol esters of fatty acids (PEFA) are a kind of promising biosurfactants and mainly secreted by Rhodotorula strains. In addition, some strains of Rhodotorula are reliable producers of microbial lipid. Therefore...

    Authors: Mengqi Wang, Weian Mao, Xiaoxiang Wang, Fengyi Li, Jiming Wang, Zhe Chi, Zhenming Chi and Guanglei Liu
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2019 18:149
  14. Dihomo-gamma linolenic acid (DGLA, 20:3, n-6) is the elongated product of Gamma linolenic acid (GLA, 18:3, n-6) catalyzed by the enzyme delta-6 elongase (D6E) or gamma linolenic acid elongase (GLELO). Construc...

    Authors: Md. Ahsanul Kabir Khan, Junhuan Yang, Syed Ammar Hussain, Huaiyuan Zhang, Li Liang, Victoriano Garre and Yuanda Song
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2019 18:64
  15. Naturally occurring carotenoids have been isolated and used as colorants, antioxidants, nutrients, etc. in many fields. There is an ever-growing demand for carotenoids production. To comfort this, microbial pr...

    Authors: Chonglong Wang, Shuli Zhao, Xixi Shao, Ji-Bin Park, Seong-Hee Jeong, Hyo-Jin Park, Won-Ju Kwak, Gongyuan Wei and Seon-Won Kim
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2019 18:55
  16. Due to their high energy density and compatible physical properties, several monoterpenes have been investigated as potential renewable transportation fuels, either as blendstocks with petroleum or as drop-in ...

    Authors: Xun Zhuang, Oliver Kilian, Eric Monroe, Masakazu Ito, Mary Bao Tran-Gymfi, Fang Liu, Ryan W. Davis, Mona Mirsiaghi, Eric Sundstrom, Todd Pray, Jeffrey M. Skerker, Anthe George and John M. Gladden
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2019 18:54
  17. Fatty acids (FAs) with a chain length of more than 18 carbon atoms (> C18) are interesting for the production of specialty compounds derived from these FAs. These compounds include free FAs, like erucic acid (...

    Authors: Leonie Wenning, Christer S. Ejsing, Florian David, Richard R. Sprenger, Jens Nielsen and Verena Siewers
    Citation: Microbial Cell Factories 2019 18:49