Abstract:The Effects of addition of four kinds of vegetable oils (soybean oil, palm oil, peanut oil and sesame oil) on arachidonic acid production by Mortierella sp. were studied. The results indicated that vegetable oils markedly enhanced the mycelial lipid accumulation. When Mortierella sp. was cultured in medium with vegetable oils as single carbon source, arachidonic acid content in lipids of the fungi greatly decreased compared with that using glucose as single carbon source. For that cultured in medium with vegetable oil and glucose as carbon sources, the arachidonic acid content was also lower than that using glucose as single carbon source, but higher than that using vegetable oils as carbon source. These pheromones indicated that vegetable oils inhibited the biosynthesis of arachidonic acid. In addition, the composition of the mycelia lipid was similar to the vegetable oil added in the medium.
