“Selección y caracterización de levaduras oleaginosas aisladas a partir de sistemas acuáticos de la ciudad de Cali”

Abstract

Yeasts have been reported as a source of microbial oil of industrial interest, since the accumulation and lipid profile of each strain can present potential use as a raw material for the generation of biodiesel (monounsaturated fatty acids) or food (polyunsaturated fatty acids). Furthermore, oleaginous yeasts represent a promising option for this purpose, because they accumulate neutral lipids, mainly triglycerides, in a high proportion of biomass (20%-70%, w/w). So, the objective of this project was to evaluate the lipid accumulating capacity in a yeast collection previously isolated from aquatic systems in Cali, Colombia. 25 strains were analyzed to determine their possible oleaginous nature and a lipid production screening was performed by gravimetry (weight of total lipids with respect to their dry biomass), being selected the yeasts with higher percentage of lipids. These strains were identified at the species level using ribosomal regions sequencing and were compared with the sequences of type strains deposited in the Genbank and Mycobank databases. Five strains of yeasts with a yield of 20% g/g or more were selected for lipid production