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Many unicellular microorganisms including yeasts, fungi, microalgae, and to a lesser extent bacteria (Fig. 1), can produce intra- cellular edible oils under normal and specialized conditions (Papanikolaou and Aggelis, 2011). Most of these organisms can accumulate microbial lipids, or single-cell oils (SCOs), to 20%–90% (w/w) of their dry cell biomass. For example, fungi in the genus Mortierella and Umbelopsis can accumulate lipids at concentrations that exceed 86% of their dry weight (Meng et al., 2009). Microbial lipids can be produced using low-priced organic materials, including waste-streams from the food industry, as growth substrate. The fatty acid of microbial lipids is very similar to the conventional vegetable oils in type and composition (Madani et al., 2017). Furthermore, microbial lipids have many potential applications, including human food additives, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, biopolymers and feed ingredients for aquaculture, and as an alternative feedstock for the production of biofuel (Lewis et al., 2000). Due to the reduced availability of cultivable land and increasing human population growth, producing lipids via traditional methods will not satisfy the rapidly growing global demand. Therefore, microbial lipids accu- mulated from microorganisms, especially oleaginous fungi, are considered as a vital and renewable oil resource and have been regarded as an alternative to animal and plant lipids in recent years, given their unique characteristics and functions in energy, chemical, and food industries (Huang et al., 2017). The production of microbial lipids is particularly attractive when low or negative cost substrates are used as the feedstock.