ARS | Publication request: BIOTRANSFORMATION OF UNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS TO INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS

Submitted to: American Chemical Society Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: March 25, 1999
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: It is important to convert vegetable oils and animal fats into value-added industrial products. One of such products is oxygenated fatty acid. We have been investigating the production of monohydroxy and polyhydroxy fatty acids from vegetable oils and their component fatty acids through biocatalysis. Microbial enzymes can produce not only mono hydroxy but also di- or tri-hydroxy fatty acids. We discovered that a new microbial isolate, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PR3, produced 7,10-dihydroxy-8(E)-octadecenoic acid (DOD) from oleic acid. We also found that this PR3 system converted ricinoleic acid to a new compound, 7,10,12- trihydroxy-8(E)-octadecenoic acid. Furthermore, we discovered that another new microbial isolate, Clavibacter sp. ALA2 produced 12,13,17-trihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid (THOA) from linoleic acid. The structures of these hydroxy unsaturated fatty acids resemble those of plant self-defense substances. This is the first report on microbial production of trihydroxy unsaturated fatty acids. On anti- pathogens activity tests, we found that DOD inhibited the growth of C. albican but did not inhibit the growth of A. flavus, A. fumigatus, C. neoformans and M. infracellulare. We also found that at 200 ppm concentration, THOA inhibited growth of some plant pathogenic fungi such as wheat powdery mildew and wheat leaf rust.