Optimization of Diverse Carbon Sources and Cultivation Conditions for Enhanced Growth and Lipid and Medium-Chain Fatty Acid (MCFA) Production by Mucor circinelloides

The effects of various carbon sources and cultivation conditions on the growth kinetics, lipid accumulation, and medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA) production of Mucor circinelloides (MC) was investigated for 72 h in shake flask cultivation. Our previous investigation reported increments of 28 to 46% MCFAs among total cell lipids when the MC genome was genetically modified, in comparison to the wild-type. However, the growth of the engineered strain M65-TE-04 was adversely affected. Therefore, the current study was designed to enhance the growth, lipid production, and MCFA productivity of engineered M. circinelloides by optimizing the pH, agitation speed, temperature, and carbon sources. The findings for individual variables disclosed that the highest biomass (17.0 g/L) was obtained when coconut oil mixed with glucose was used as a carbon source under normal culture conditions. Additionally, the maximum lipid contents (67.5% cell dry weight (CDW)), MCFA contents (53% total fatty acid (TFA)), and overall lipid productivity (3.53 g/Ld) were attained at 26 degrees C, pH 6.0, and 150 rpm, respectively. The maximum biomass (19.4 g/L), TFA (14.3g/L), and MCFA (4.71 g/L) contents were achieved with integration of a temperature of 26 degrees C, pH 6.0, agitation speed 300 rpm, and coconut oil mixed medium as the carbon source. This work illustrates that biomass, TFA, and MCFA contents were increased 1.70-2.0-fold by optimizing the initial pH, agitation speed, temperature, and carbon sources in the M. circinelloides engineered strain (M65-TE-04) in comparison to initial cultivation conditions.