Culture Medium Optimization for Lipid and Nervonic Acid Production in Mortierella capitata

Oleaginous fungi are promising platforms for sustainable production of lipids and very-long-chain fatty acids, including nervonic acid (NA; 24:1 n-9), whose natural availability is limited despite its importance. Following the identification of a promising strain in a screening study, Mortierella capitata CBS 110633 was selected for stepwise evaluation of cultivation conditions in shake-flask cultures. The effects of glucose concentration and nitrogen source composition on biomass formation, lipid accumulation, and NA enrichment were evaluated. Increasing glucose concentration primarily enhanced lipid accumulation, from approximately 4.8 to 8.7 g L−1, whereas nitrogen source composition was associated with differences in fatty acid distribution and NA enrichment. Under conditions favoring NA enrichment, with 60 g L−1 glucose, 4 g L−1 yeast extract, urea supplementation, and 14 days of cultivation, NA enrichment reached 9.5% of total fatty acids. In contrast, the highest lipid production (8.7 g L−1) and estimated NA yield (504.7 mg L−1) were obtained using 60 g L−1 glucose supplemented with yeast extract and peptone (4 g L−1 each) after 14 days. These findings indicate that NA enrichment and total lipid accumulation respond differently to cultivation conditions and highlight M. capitata CBS 110633 as a promising microbial platform for further investigation and development of NA production.