title: Microbial oils as food additives: recent approaches for improving microbial oil production and its polyunsaturated fatty acid content.
abstract: In this short review, we summarize the latest research in the production of polyunsaturated microbial oils that are of interest in food technology. The current research targets the productivity of oleaginous microorganisms, as well as the biosynthesis of particular polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). The most important efforts target the efficiency of the oleaginous machinery, via overexpression of key-enzymes involved in lipid biosynthesis, as well as the minimization of lipid degradation, by repressing genes involved in the β-oxidation pathway. The production of specific PUFAs is approached by homologous or heterologous expression of specific desaturases and elongases involved in PUFA biosynthesis in oleaginous microorganisms. New perspectives, such as the production of triacylglycerols of specific structure and the employment of adaptive experimental evolution for creating robust oleaginous strains able to produce PUFAs are also discussed.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics, Cell & Development Biology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, Patras 26504, Greece.
authors.forename: Stamatia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bellou
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics, Cell & Development Biology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, Patras 26504, Greece.
authors.forename: Irene-Eva
authors.initials: IE
authors.lastname: Triantaphyllidou
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Dimitra
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Aggeli
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Chemistry of Natural and Microbial Products, Division of Pharmaceutical and Drug Industries, National Research Centre, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ahmed Mohammed
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Elazzazy
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Department of Biology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Mohammed Nabih
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Baeshen
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetics, Cell & Development Biology, Department of Biology, University of Patras, Patras 26504, Greece; Department of Biology, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. Electronic address: George.Aggelis@upatras.gr.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aggelis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism; D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated / Q000378:metabolism; D005503:Food Additives; D006801:Humans; D050356:Lipid Metabolism; D064307:Microbiota; D009821:Oils / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005227:Fatty Acids; D005231:Fatty Acids, Unsaturated; D005503:Food Additives; D009821:Oils