Manipulation of culture conditions alters lipid content and fatty acid profiles of a wide variety of known and new oleaginous yeast species.

Oleaginous yeasts have been studied for oleochemical production for over 80 years. Only a few species have been studied intensely. To expand the diversity of oleaginous yeasts available for lipid research, we surveyed a broad diversity of yeasts with indicators of oleaginicity including known oleaginous clades, and buoyancy. Sixty-nine strains representing 17 genera and 50 species were screened for lipid production. Yeasts belonged to Ascomycota families, Basidiomycota orders, and the yeast-like algal genus Prototheca. Total intracellular lipids and fatty acid composition were determined under different incubation times and nitrogen availability. Thirteen new oleaginous yeast species were discovered, representing multiple ascomycete and basidiomycete clades. Nitrogen starvation generally increased intracellular lipid content. The fatty acid profiles varied with the growth conditions regardless of taxonomic affiliation. The dominant fatty acids were oleic acid, palmitic acid, linoleic acid, and stearic acid. Yeasts and culture conditions that produced fatty acids appropriate for biodiesel were identified.

Insect herbivores selectively suppress the HPL branch of the oxylipin pathway in host plants.

Insect herbivores have developed a myriad of strategies to manipulate the defense responses of their host plants. Here we provide evidence that chewing insects differentially alter the oxylipin profiles produced by the two main and competing branches of the plant defensive response pathway, the allene oxide synthase (AOS) and hydroperoxide lyase (HPL) branches, which are responsible for wound-inducible production of jasmonates (JAs), and green leafy volatiles (GLVs) respectively. Specifically, we used three Arabidopsis genotypes that were damaged by mechanical wounding or by insects of various feeding guilds (piercing aphids, generalist chewing caterpillars and specialist chewing caterpillars). We established that emission of GLVs is stimulated by wounding incurred mechanically or by aphids, but release of these volatiles is constitutively impaired by both generalist and specialist chewing insects. Simultaneously, however, these chewing herbivores stimulated JA production, demonstrating targeted insect suppression of the HPL branch of the oxylipin pathway. Use of lines engineered to express HPL constitutively, in conjunction with quantitative RT-PCR-based expression analyses, established a combination of transcriptional and post-transcriptional reprogramming of the HPL pathway genes as the mechanistic basis of insect-mediated suppression of the corresponding metabolites. Feeding studies suggested a potential evolutionary advantage of suppressing GLV production, as caterpillars preferably consumed leaf tissue from plants that had not been primed by these volatile cues.