AUTHOR=Fazili Abu Bakr Ahmad , Shah Aabid Manzoor , Albeshr Mohammed Fahad , Naz Tahira , Dar Mohammad Abass , Yang Wu , Garre Victoriano , Fazili Khalid Majid , Bhat Eijaz Ahmed , Song Yuanda 

TITLE=Overexpression of the Mitochondrial Malic Enzyme Genes (malC and malD) Improved the Lipid Accumulation in Mucor circinelloides WJ11

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2022.919364

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2022.919364

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Mucor circinelloides</italic> serves as a model organism to investigate the lipid metabolism in oleaginous microorganisms. It is considered as an important producer of γ-linolenic acid (GLA) that has vital medicinal benefits. In this study, we used WJ11, a high lipid-producing strain of <italic>M. circinelloides</italic> (36% w/w lipid, cell dry weight, CDW), to examine the role in lipid accumulation of two mitochondrial malic enzyme (ME) genes <italic>malC</italic> and <italic>malD</italic>. The homologous overexpression of both <italic>malC</italic> and <italic>malD</italic> genes enhanced the total lipid content of WJ11 by 41.16 and 32.34%, respectively. In parallel, the total content of GLA was enhanced by 16.73 and 46.76% in <italic>malC</italic> and <italic>malD</italic> overexpressing strains, respectively, because of the elevation of total lipid content. The fact that GLA content was enhanced more in the strain with lower lipid content increase and vice versa, indicated that engineering of mitochondrial MEs altered the fatty acid profile. Our results reveal that mitochondrial ME plays an important role in lipid metabolism and suggest that future approaches may involve simultaneous overexpression of distinct ME genes to boost lipid accumulation even further.</p>