Omega-3 eicosatetraenoic acid production by molecular breeding of the mutant strain S14 derived from Mortierella alpina 1S-4.

We investigated the omega-3 eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA) production by molecular breeding of the oleaginous fungus Mortierella alpina, which can slightly accumulate ETA only when cultivated at a low temperature. The endogenous ω3-desaturase gene or the heterologous Saprolegnia diclina Δ17 (sdd17m) desaturase gene were overexpressed in M. alpina S14, a Δ5-desaturation activity-defective mutant derived from M. alpina 1S-4. M. alpina S14 transformants introduced with the endogenous ω3-desaturase gene showed ETA at 42.1% content in the total lipids that was 84.2-fold and 3.2-fold higher than that of the wild-type strain 1S-4 and host strain S14, respectively, when cultivated at 12°C. No accumulation of ETA was observed at 28°C. In contrast, transformants with the heterologous sdd17m gene showed 24.9% of the content of total lipids at 28°C. These results indicated that these M. alpina S14 transformants are promising strains for the production of ETA, which is hard to obtain from natural sources.