Abstract
Saccharomyces rouxii is a salt-tolerant yeast, industrially important for miso- and shoyu-making. The change of intracellular lipid composition was examined in shaken cultures of S. rouxii ATCC 42981 grown in medium containing various concentrations of NaCl. Increases in sterolesters and free fatty acids and a decrease in triacylglycerol were observed on adding 1 M or 2M NaCl to the medium. With an increase in NaCl concentration to 3M, sterol-esters decreased, triacylglycerol increased, and free fatty acids increased further. An increase in oleic acid and the decrease in linoleic acid were found with an increase in NaCl concentration. Effects of NaCl similar to these were also recognized in other strains of S. rouxii. The shape of S. rouxii cells changed from spherical to ellipsoidal with an increase in NaCl concentration. The size of cells was observed microscopically to be smaller in 2M and 3M NaCl-media than in OM and 1M NaCl-media.
