Kyushu University

Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.

Konan Gakuen

University of Miyazaki

Rie Hamaguchi

Makoto Ito

Yuji Okita

Daisuke Honda

Shinichi Sugimoto

Naoki Nagano

Masahiro Hayashi

Keishi Sakaguchi

Takanori Matsuda

Seiya Mochinaga

Hatsumi Goda

A method for producing a microbial oil includes steps of: genetically modifying a labyrinthulid by disrupting and/or silencing a gene, or by transforming another gene in addition to the disruption and/or gene silencing of the gene, and culturing the labyrinthulid, such that a fatty acid composition accumulated in the labyrinthulid comprises an increased EPA content; and collecting the microbial oil having the increased EPA content from the labyrinthulid. The labyrinthulid before the modification is selected from (A) a labyrinthulid belonging to the genusor genusand having very weak or no activity of producing PUFAs via a PUFA-PKS pathway; and (B) a labyrinthulid belonging to the genusin which a host PUFA-PKS gene is disrupted or silenced to a very weak level. The increased EPA content is preferably not less than 11.5% of a total fatty acid composition.

Labyrinthulid microorganism capable of producing microbial oil, microbial oil, methods for producing said microorganism and for producing said microbial oil, and uses of said microorganism and said microbial oil

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-&#x3b3;-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.

Microbial oil containing fatty acids obtained from stramenopile and method of producing the same

To provide a transformation method for producing a stramenopile organism having an improved unsaturated fatty acid production capability by disrupting a gene of the stramenopile organism or inhibiting the expression of the gene in a genetically engineering manner. [Solution] A method for transforming a stramenopile organism, which comprises disrupting a gene of the stramenopile organism or inhibiting the expression of the gene in a genetically engineering manner, and which is characterized in that the stramenopile organism is selected fromandsp. and the gene to be disrupted or of which the expression is to be inhibited is a gene associated with the biosynthesis of a fatty acid.

Method for transformation of stramenopile

Growing community of inventors

Fukuoka, Japan

Rie Hamaguchi