Lipid extract derived from newly isolated Rhodotorula toruloides LAB-07 for cosmetic applications

Rhodotorula toruloides is a non-conventional yeast with a natural carotenoid pathway. In particular, R. tor-uloides is an oleaginous yeast that can accumulate lipids in high content, thereby gaining interest as a pro-mising industrial host. In this study, we isolated and taxonomically identified a new R. toruloides LAB-07 strain. De novo genome assembly using PacBio and Illumina hybrid platforms yielded 27 contigs with a 20.78 Mb genome size. Subsequent genome annotation analysis based on RNA-seq predicted 5296 protein-coding genes, including the fatty acid production pathway. We compared lipid production under different media; it was highest in the yeast extract salt medium with glycerol as a carbon source. Polyunsaturated alpha-linolenic acid was detected among the fatty acids, and docking phosphatidylcholine as a substrate to modeled Fad2, which an-notated as A12-fatty acid desaturase showed bifunctional A12, 15-desaturation is structurally possible in that the distances between the diiron center and the carbon-carbon bond in which desaturation occurs were si-milar to those of structurally identified mouse stearoyl-CoA desaturase. Finally, the applicability of the ex-tracted total lipid fraction of R. toruloides was investigated, demonstrating an increase in filaggrin expression and suppression of heat-induced MMP-1 expression when applied to keratinocytes, along with the additional antioxidant activity. This work presents a new R. toruloides LAB-07 strain with genomic and lipidomic data, which would help understand the physiology of R. toruloides. Also, the various skin-related effect of R. tor-uloides lipid extract indicates its potential usage as a promising cosmetic ingredient.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Research Network of Computational and Structural Biotechnology. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

In this study, a new strain of Rhodotorula toruloides LAB-07 was isolated and identified, with a genome size of 20.78 Mb and 5296 predicted protein-coding genes. It was found that this strain can produce high levels of fatty acids under different culture conditions. Moreover, the extracted lipid fraction of R. toruloides demonstrated antioxidant activity and showed potential benefits for skin health, indicating its promising application as a cosmetic ingredient.