Cellulase mediated stress triggers the mutations of oleaginous yeast Trichosporon cutaneum with super-large spindle morphology and high lipid accumulation.

Accumulation of intracellular lipid bodies in oleaginous yeast cells is highly restricted by their natural intracellular space. Here we show a cellulase mediated adaptive evolution with ultra-centrifugation fractionation of oleaginous yeast Trichosporon cutaneum to obtain the favorable cell structure for lipid accumulation. Cellulase was added to the wheat straw hydrolysate during long-term adaptive evolution for disruption of cell wall integrity of T. cutaneum cells. The cellulase, together with ultracentrifugation force, triggered multiple mutations and transcriptional expression changes of the functional genes associated with cell wall integrity and lipid synthesis metabolism. The fractionated mutant T. cutaneum YY52 demonstrated the heavily weakened cell wall and high lipid accumulation by the super-large expanded spindle cells (two orders of magnitude greater than the parental). A record-high lipid production by T. cutaneum YY52 was achieved (55.4 ± 0.5 g/L from wheat straw and 58.4 ± 0.1 g/L from corn stover). This study not only obtained an oleaginous yeast strain with industrial application potential for lipid production but also provided a new method for generation of mutant cells with high intracellular metabolite accumulation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.