ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Industrial Biotechnology
Production of 13C-labeled docosahexaenoic acid from heterotrophic marine microorganisms Aurantiochytrium mangrovei and Crypthecodinium cohnii enabling fluxomic applications
Provisionally accepted
Manon Buscaglia1*
Bastian Gouriou1Yoann Asquoët1Nelly Le Goïc1Fabienne Le Grand1
Mayssa Hachem2Philippe Soudant1- 1Laboratoire des Sciences de l'Environnement Marin, Plouzané, France
- 2Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) is the predominant polyunsaturated fatty acid in the human brain and eyes, playing a crucial role in vision and cognitive development. DHA deficiency has been associated with ocular diseases, such as macular degeneration and glaucoma, as well as neurodegenerative disorders. Since the human body has a limited ability to synthesize DHA from its precursor, alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, 18:3n-3), targeted DHA supplementation is essential for these patients. To investigate DHA metabolism and integration, researchers commonly use stable (2H,13C) or radioactive (3H,14C) isotopes, which are expensive and not widely accessible, restricting the scope and duration of studies. This study aimed to develop a sustainable method for biosynthesizing uniformly labeled 13C-DHA by culturing the heterotrophic protists Aurantiochytrium mangrovei and Crypthecodinium cohnii with 13C-glucose. The major fatty acids (FA) of A. mangrovei included 16:0, 22:5n-6 (DPA), and DHA, with DHA accounting for 50.5 ± 4.9% of the total FA. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis revealed a 13C-enrichment of DHA at 96.7 ± 0.4% after the effective High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) purification. The predominant FA of C. cohnii were 12:0, 14:0, 16:0, and DHA, with DHA representing around 27% of the total FA and exhibiting a 13C-enrichment of 86.3 ± 1.6%. Based on FA content, A. mangrovei showed a balanced distribution of neutral and polar lipids, with DHA predominantly in the polar fraction (57.8 ± 3.1%), whereas C. cohnii exhibited a predominance of neutral lipids (82.4 ± 0.3%), which contained the majority of its DHA (57.5 ± 1.0%).
Keywords: 13C-labeled DHA, Aurantiochytrium mangrovei, Crypthecodinium cohnii, omega-3, sustainable production
Received: 22 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Buscaglia, Gouriou, Asquoët, Le Goïc, Le Grand, Hachem and Soudant. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Manon Buscaglia, manon.buscaglia@univ-brest.fr
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