Isolation and Characterization of a New Cyanobacterial Strain with a Unique Fatty Acid Composition

Abstract

A new cyanobacterial strain was isolated and purified from salt Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan. According to its morphological and ultrastructural characteristics, 16S rRNA sequence and the fatty acid profile, the strain has been classified as Cyanobacterium spp. and assigned as Cyanobacterium sp. IPPAS B-1200. The strain is characterized by a non-temperature inducible Δ9-desaturation system, and by high relative amounts of myristic (14:0—30%) and myristoleic (14:1Δ9—10%) acids. The total amount of C14 fatty acids reaches 40%, which is unusually high for cyanobacteria, and it has never been reported before. The remaining fatty acids are represented mainly by palmitic (16:0) and palmitoleic (16:1Δ9) acids (the sum reaches nearly 60%). Such a fatty acid composition, together with a relatively high speed of growth, makes this newly isolated strain a prospective candidate for biodiesel production.