Simultaneous production of single cell oil and fumaric acid by a newly isolated yeast Aureobasidium pullulans var. aubasidani DH177.

Microbial oils can be used for biodiesel production and fumaric acid (FA) is widely used in the food and chemical industries. In this study, the production of lipids and FA by Aureobasidium pullulans var. aubasidani DH177 was investigated. A high initial carbon/nitrogen ratio in the medium promoted the accumulation of lipids and FA. When the medium contained 12.0% glucose and 0.2% NH4NO3, the yeast strain DH177 accumulated 64.7% (w/w) oil in its cells, 22.4 g/l cell biomass and 32.3 g/l FA in a 5-L batch fermentation. The maximum yields of oil and FA were 0.12 g/g and 0.27 g/g of consumed sugar, respectively. The compositions of the produced fatty acids were C14:0 (0.6%), C16:0 (24.9%), C16:1 (4.4%), C18:0 (2.1%), C18:1 (57.6%), and C18:2 (10.2%). Biodiesel obtained from the extracted oil burned well. This study provides the pioneering utilization of the yeast strain DH177 for the integrated production of oil and FA.