Abstract
Antioxidant plant polyphenols resveratrol and its glycoside polydatin at 500g/L were found to have two distinct effects on yeasts and algae depending on the cell content of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). In yeasts that do not produce PUFA, resveratrol (0.5mg/L) increased resistance to biosynthesized ethanol (an important property in winemaking) to 22% EtOH in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and 14% EtOH in Torulaspora delbruckii, the fatty acid content being changed only slightly, whereas in the PUFA-producing algae Desmodesmus quadricauda and Euglena gracilis both compounds act as inhibitors of 4 desaturases blocking the formation of both even- and odd-numbered PUFA having the first double-bond in position 4.
This leads to the biotechnologically desirable accumulation of the health-beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), docosapentaenoic (DPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA).