Microbial oils with lowered pour points, dielectric fluids produced therefrom, and related methods
View Patent ↗Methods and compositions for the production of dielectric fluids from lipids produced by microorganisms are provided, including oil-bearing microorganisms and methods of low cost cultivation of such microorganisms. Microalgal cells containing exogenous genes encoding, for example, a sucrose transporter, a sucrose invertase, a fructokinase, a polysaccharide-degrading enzyme, a lipid pathway modification enzyme, a fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase, a desaturase, a fatty acyl-CoA/aldehyde reductase, and/or an acyl carrier protein are useful in manufacturing dielectric fluids.
1. A recombinant Chlorella or Prototheca cell engineered to ablate or downregulate expression of an endogenous fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase gene.
2. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the endogenous fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase gene is downregulated by an inhibitory RNA.
3. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the Prototheca or Chlorella cell is of the species Prototheca moriformis or Chlorella protothecoides.
4. The cell of claim 1 , wherein the Chlorella or Prototheca cell further comprises one or more exogenous genes that encode a sucrose invertase, a fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase, a desaturase, or an inhibitory RNA that targets an endogenous desaturase.
5. The cell of claim 4 , wherein the one or more expressed exogenous genes encode(s) an inhibitory RNA that targets an endogenous desaturase.
6. The cell of claim 4 , wherein the one or more exogenous genes encode(s) sucrose invertase, fatty acyl-ACP thioesterase or desaturase.
7. The Cell of claim 6 , wherein the Prototheca or Chlorella is of the species Prototheca moriformis or Chlorella protothecoides.