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Endophytic Fungal Strains of Soybean for Lipid Production

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Abstract

Lipids created via microbial biosynthesis are a potential raw material to replace plant-based oil for biodiesel production. Oleaginous microbial species currently available are capable of accumulating high amount of lipids in their cell biomass, but rarely can directly utilize lignocellulosic biomass as substrates. Thus this research focused on the screening and selection of new fungal strains that generate both lipids and hydrolytic enzymes. To search for oleaginous fungal strains in the soybean plant, endophytic fungi and fungi close to the plant roots were studied as a microbial source. Among 33 endophytic fungal isolates screened from the soybean plant, 13 have high lipid content (>20 % dry biomass weight); among 38 fungal isolates screened from the soil surrounding the soybean roots, 14 have high lipid content. Also, five fungal isolates with both high lipid content and promising biomass production were selected for further studies on their cell growth, oil accumulation, lipid content and profile, utilization of various carbon sources, and cellulase production. The results indicate that most strains could utilize different types of carbon sources and some strains accumulated >40 % of the lipids based on the dry cell biomass weight. Among these promising strains, some Fusarium strains specifically showed considerable production of cellulase, which offers great potential for biodiesel production by directly utilizing inexpensive lignocellulosic material as feedstock.

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Acknowledgments

Yan Yang’s study was partly supported by the Grand-in-Aid program at the University of Minnesota, and the research was supported by Bo Hu’s faculty seed money program at the University of Minnesota.

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  1. Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota, 1390 Eckles Avenue, Saint Paul, MN, 55108-6005, USA

    Yan Yang, Mi Yan & Bo Hu

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  1. Yan Yang
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  2. Mi Yan
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  3. Bo Hu
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Correspondence to Bo Hu.

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Yang, Y., Yan, M. & Hu, B. Endophytic Fungal Strains of Soybean for Lipid Production. Bioenerg. Res. 7, 353–361 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-013-9377-5

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