Production and composition of wax esters by fermentation of Euglena gracilis.

Werecently reported that wax esters werepromptly accumulated in aerobically cultured Euglena gracilis cells whenthey were brought to anaerobic conditions, and that paramylon, the reserve polysaccharide, was quantitatively consumed for the production of wax esters.1}The anaerobic cells gain ATP during the conversion of paramylon to wax esters, and therefore the phenomenonis designated as wax ester fermentation.In order to develop a new method of microbial wax ester production based upon this biochemical finding, we studied the yields of wax esters by the fermentation of E. gracilis grown in different media and the composition of the products.Euglena gracilis SM-ZK, a streptomycin-bleached mutant derived from strain Z,2) was cultured in 10 liters of Koren-Hutner medium containing glucose, malate and glutamate as the main carbon sources3) or the three