The yeast lipases produced were likely to have hydrolysed the lipid
fraction of okara, either partially to mono- or di-glycerides and fatty
acids or completely to glycerol and fatty acids. Some of the fatty acids
in okara, such as C18:0 and C18:1, which makes up 4.7% and 20.4% of
the total fatty acids respectively, can trigger triglyceride accumulation
in Y. lipolytica (Beopoulos et al., 2008; Mateos-Aparicio et al., 2010a;
Saygün et al., 2014). Therefore, the lipase-hydrolysed and existing free
fatty acids in okara could have been actively transported into the Y.
lipolytica cells for intracellular conversion into triglycerides via the
Kennedy pathway, which can then be consumed for energy or stored