High oleic oil compositions and uses thereof

A method of producing a non-genetically modified microalgal cell, wherein the cell produces a non-naturally occurring high oleic acid content oil, the method comprising:

• a) subjecting microalgal cells of a microalgal base strain in a log phase of growth to mutagenesis to form mutagenized cells;
• b) sub-culturing the mutagenized cells or derivatives thereof in a first lipid production medium to obtain sub-cultured mutagenized cells;
• c) subjecting the sub-cultured mutagenized cells or derivatives thereof to at least one selection strategy to obtain cells meeting or surpassing a selected threshold for glucose consumption rate to obtain lead clones;
• d) selecting the lead clones;
• e) culturing the selected lead clones or derivatives thereof in a solid medium to obtain clonal isolates;
• f) culturing the clonal isolates or derivatives thereof in a second lipid production medium;
• g) identifying clonal isolates consuming glucose at a rate of at least about 6.0 grams/liter*day in the second lipid production medium to obtain high glucose consuming isolates;
• h) culturing the high glucose consuming isolates or derivatives thereof in a third lipid production medium to obtain validated isolates;
• i) sub-culturing the validated isolates or derivatives thereof to obtain stabilized validated isolates;
• j) culturing the stabilized validated clonal isolates or derivatives thereof in a fourth lipid production medium to obtain phenotypically stable clones and phenotypically variable clones,
• wherein the phenotypically stable clones are capable of producing the non-naturally occurring high oleic acid content oil, wherein the non-naturally occurring high oleic acid content oil comprises a triacylglyceride (TAG) component having a fatty acid content comprising at least 80% C18:1 fatty acids;
• and
• k) performing fermentation validation and analysis on the phenotypically stable clones to produce the non-genetically modified microalgal cell.