High eicosapentaenoic acid producing strains of
View Patent ↗Engineered strains of the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica capable of producing greater than 25% eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, an ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid) in the total oil fraction are described. These strains comprise various chimeric genes expressing heterologous desaturases, elongases and acyltransferases and optionally comprise various native desaturase and acyltransferase knockouts to enable synthesis and high accumulation of EPA. Production host cells are claimed, as are methods for producing EPA within said host cells.
1. An isolated microbial oil comprising at least 25% eicosapentaenoic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids, wherein the oil is devoid of docosahexaenoic acid.
2. The microbial oil of claim 1 , further comprising at least 5% gamma-linolenic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids.
3. The microbial oil of claim 1 , wherein the oil is devoid of gamma-linolenic acid.
4. The microbial oil of claim 1 , comprising at least 26.6% eicosapentaenoic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids and further comprising:
a) less than 3.6% eicosatetraenoic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids;
b) less than 6.7% dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids; and
c) less than 2.4% arachidonic acid as a percent of the total fatty acids, provided that the percentage of each of said eicosatetraenoic acid, dihomo-gamma-linolenic acid and arachidonic acid is not equal to zero.
5. The microbial oil of claim 1 , wherein the microbial oil is a yeast oil.
6. The microbial oil of claim 5 , wherein the yeast is Yarrowia.
7. The microbial oil of claim 4 , wherein the microbial oil is a yeast oil.
8. The microbial oil of claim 7 , wherein the yeast is Yarrowia.
9. A food product comprising the microbial oil of any one of claims 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 .
10. The food product according to claim 9 , wherein the food product is selected from the group consisting of a food analogue, a meat product, a cereal product, a baked food, a snack food, and a dairy product.
11. A product selected from the group consisting of a medical food, a dietary supplement, an infant formula and a pharmaceutical comprising an effective amount of the microbial oil of any one of claims 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 .
12. An animal feed comprising the microbial oil of any one of claims 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 .
13. The animal feed according to claim 12 wherein the animal feed is selected from the group consisting of a pet feed, a ruminant feed, a poultry feed, and an aquacultural feed.
14. The animal feed according to claim 13 , additionally comprising a yeast biomass comprising recombinant oleaginous Yarrowia yeast, wherein said Yarrowia are capable of producing a microbial oil comprising eicosapentaenoic acid.
15. The animal feed according to claim 14 wherein the yeast biomass comprises feed nutrients selected from the group consisting of proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and nucleic acids.