Production of docosahexaenoic and docosapentaenoic acids by Schizochytrium sp. isolated from Yap Islands

Abstract

A marine microbe (strain SR21) from the coral reef area of the Yap Islands was isolated by a screening test for polyunsaturated fatty acids and was found to accumulate lipid that contained 22:5n‐6 docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) as well as 22:6n‐3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Strain SR21 was identified as genus Schizochytrium in Labyrinthulomycota, owing to its ultrastructural character and life cycle, which is composed of vegetative cell, zoosporangium, and zoospore stages. After cultural optimization, both in flask and fermenter, the highest DHA and DPA productivities of 2.0 and 0.44 g/L per day, respectively, were obtained in a medium of 60 g/L glucose and corn steep liquor/ammonium sulfate in a half salt concentration of seawater in fermenter culture at 28°C and pH 4. This productivity was almost twice that obtained with flask culture, indicating its high resistance to mechanical stirring. The lipid extracted from the cell was about 50% of the dry cell weight and was composed of 93% triacylglycerol (TG). DHA content of the lipid was 34% of total fatty acids. The TG profile was simple, and the content of the most dominant TG, 1,3‐dipalmitoyl‐2‐DHA‐TG, was 27%. TG that contained DHA and n‐6‐DPA amounted to 57 and 17%, respectively, of total TG molecules. Strain SR21 was revealed to be an excellent source of microbial DHA and n‐6 DPA.