An aquatic filamentous fungus, Saprolegnia sp. 28YTF-1, was found to accumulate odd chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) of 17 to 19 carbon chain length, when grown with fatty acids with 13, 15, or 17 carbons. A novel ω2 PUFA identified as 5,8,11,14,17-cis-nonadecapentaenoic acid (19:5ω2) was detected as one of the major PUFAs, together with 5,8,11,14-cis-nona-decatetraenoic acid (19:4ω5), in both nonpolar and polar lipids from the mycelia. The biosynthetic route to 19:5ω2 was presumed to mimic the ω6 route to arachidonic acid (20:4ω6) and ω3 de-saturation of 20:4ω6 to 5,8,11,14,17 -cis-eicosapentaenoic acid (20:5ω3), as follows: 15:0→17:0→17:1→17:2ω5→17:3ω5→19:4ω5→19:5ω2.
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Shirasaka et al. (1995) studied this question.