Provided herein are methods of culturing a microorganism. The methods include providing a container comprising one or more microorganisms in a medium, which has a first carbon to nitrogen ratio; culturing the microorganisms until the culture reaches a threshold indicator; harvesting a portion of the culture while maintaining the majority of the culture in the container; and adding fresh medium comprising a second carbon to nitrogen ratio to the container with the majority of the culture comprising the microorganisms.

The present invention relates to polynucleotides from Ostreococcus lucimarinus which code for desaturases and elongases and which can be employed for the recombinant production of polyunsaturated fatty acids. The invention furthermore relates to vectors, host cells and transgenic nonhuman organisms which comprise the polynucleotides, and to the polypeptides encoded by the polynucleotides. Finally, the invention also relates to production processes for the polyunsaturated fatty acids and for oil, lipid and fatty acid compositions.

Provided herein are methods of recovering oil from microorganisms. The methods are useful, for example, in obtaining nutritional oils and/or lipid biofuels. The methods of recovering oil described herein include contacting a population of microorganisms with one or more enzymes under conditions that cause disruption of the microorganisms, concentrating the disrupted microorganisms, and extracting lipids from the disrupted microorganisms at high temperature in the presence of a salt and in the absence of solvent.

The present invention provides a method for extracting lipids from microorganisms without using organic solvent as an extraction solvent. In particular, the present invention provides a method for extracting lipids from microorganisms by lysing cells and removing water soluble compound and/or materials by washing the lysed cell mixtures with aqueous washing solutions until a substantially non-emulsified lipid is obtained.

Provided is a Schizochytrium limacinum strain, a building method therefor and an application thereof. The strain disclosed is classified and named as Schizochytrium sp. HX-RS, and the preservation number is CCTCC NO: M2017046. An acyltransferase functional domain originating from Shewanella PKS enzyme is adopted instead of an acyltransferase functional domain originating from Schizochytrium sp. PKS enzyme, and the strain is obtained by performing flat panel screening and acclimation screening with a high rotation seed and a low temperature.

A microbial oil is obtained from Labyrinthulomycetes in which a gene for fatty acid biosynthesis has been disrupted or an expression of the gene has been inhibited to highly accumulate the fatty acid. The microbial oil typically contains: (a) 1.5% or more of arachidonic acid (AA) based on a total amount of fatty acid; (b) 0.2% or more of dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA) based on the total amount of fatty acid; (c) 0.04% or more of eicosatetraenoic acid (ETA) based on the total amount of fatty acid; (d) 3.8% or more of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) based on the total amount of fatty acid; (e) 13.7% or less of n-6 docosapentaenoic acid (n-6DPA) based on the total amount of fatty acid; and (f) 43.9% or less of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) based on the total amount of fatty acid.

Provided is a method for producing an unsaturated fatty acid oxide (e.g. ω3 fatty acid oxide) that is new and has more beneficial features compared to conventional technologies. This method uses a lipoxygenase-containing composition (e.g. a lipoxygenase-containing composition derived from beans) as a lipoxygenase enzyme, and also uses a freezing method with organic solvent extraction. The present invention makes it possible to produce an unsaturated fatty acid oxide (e.g. ω3 fatty acid oxide) efficiently and at a low cost. The present invention also provides a pharmaceutical composition containing an ω3 fatty acid oxide isolated and purified by this method as an active ingredient.

Provided herein are eukaryotic microorganisms having a simple lipid profile comprising long chain fatty acids (LCFAs). Also provided are compositions and cultures comprising the eukaryotic microorganisms as well as methods of using the eukaryotic microorganisms.

Provided is a method of producing an oil containing polyunsaturated fatty acids by using Schizochytrium sp. The method comprises: performing fermentation using Schizochytrium sp.; resuspending the resultant cells after fermentation in water, adding cellulase and neutral protease for enzymolysis; mixing the enzymatic hydrolyzate with n-hexane, shaking, extracting, centrifuging, and collecting the n-hexane phase; concentrating the n-hexane phase under reduced pressure to remove the n-hexane, and drying to obtain an oil; performing a first crystallization and a second crystallization, and then performing cold filtration to obtain a liquid oil after the second crystallization; and subjecting the liquid oil to deacidification and decolorization. By regulating fermentation conditions and conducting concentration processing on polyunsaturated fatty acids, the content of eicosapentaenoic acid in the Schizochytrium sp. is increased to more than 12%, and the obtained oil is rich in docosahexaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid.

The present invention relates to methods of synthesizing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially eicosapentaenoic acid, docosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid, in recombinant cells such as yeast or plant cells. Also provided are recombinant cells or plants which produce long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a group of new enzymes which possess desatorase or elongase activity that can be used in methods of synthesizing long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids.