The changes in lipid composition of Pythium irregulare LX oomycetes at a stressful situation created with crude oil

Abstract

Pythium irregulare oomycetes adapts with environmental changes including crude oil concentration by changing the composition of lipids in the cytoplasmic membrane and providing the required characteristics for adaptation in improper and stressful environmental situations. It was found that cultivation of Pythium irregulare LX oomycetes in the nutrient media with different concentrations of crude oil with 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 and 10.0 (%), incubated for 5 days at 26-28°C on a rotary shaker (200 rpm) in aerobic conditions and deep culturing caused an increase in the lipid content and the unsaturation degree of fatty acids, confirming the correspondence between the increase of polar lipid/free sterol in the composition of membrane lipids' ratio and that of polar lipids in general lipid fractions. Represented data shows that the process of adaptation of oomycetes to a stressful situation created with crude oil motivated the increase of the rate of membrane phospholipids with a high quantity of unsaturated fatty acids.