Abstract
Mucor rouxii BCRC 30546 is an oleaginous fungus producing considerable quantities of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). γ-Linolenic acid (GLA) is one of essential fatty acid in the fungus. In researches about microbial PUFAs production, the analytical procedures of lipid content were complicated and time-consuming. In this work, we investigated the effects of various cultivation conditions on growth, morphology and lipid content and use a rapid analytical method, image analysis, to predict the fungal lipid productivity under various cultivation conditions and to replace the traditional microbial lipid analysis. We scanned the morphology by a flatbed scanner and analyzed time-course image data to obtained an index of lipid prediction by correlate the two morphological parameters, fungal area sum (Af) and skewness value (Sk) of shape factor of Aea/(Perimeter2), with total lipid contents under various culture condition. The index was an 1st-order plane equation (L = 1.141×Af + 0.434×Sk + 0.289, R2 = 0.950, L: total lipid content (g/L)) and the error percentage was range of -8.19 - 12.19 %.