The lipid profiles were determined by gas chromatographic analysis of the total fatty acids directly transmethylesterified from dried cells. Lipid extracted from dried cells (0.01 g) was added to 2 mL of 10% methanolic HCl and 1.0 mL of methylene chloride mixture and kept at 60 oC for 3 h (Kimura et al., 2004). The reaction was stopped by the addition of 4 mL of saturated NaCl solution and 2 mL of hexane. The resulting methyl esters recovered in the hexane layer were analyzed with a gas chromatograph (GC–MSQP2010S, Shimadzu, Japan) equipped with a TRB-5MS capillary column (30 m 0.25 mm 0.25 lm) at 70 eV (m/z 40–400; source at 250 oC and quadruple at 100 oC) in the EI mode. Injector temperature was 250 oC with the detector at 250 oC (Kimura et al., 2004). The oven temperature was kept at 100 oC for 2 min and increased to 230 oC at a rate of 4 oC per min. and kept at 230 oC for 3 min. Helium was used as a carrier gas at a flow rate of 34 cm s 1. The injection volume was 1 lL with a split ratio of 25:1. Calibration of the instrument was done using a 14-component FAMEs standard mixture (C8-C24) (Sigma–Aldrich Supelco 18919-1AMP) with margaric acid standard as an internal standard. The mass fragmentation patterns were compared with spectral data from the Wiley and NIST libraries. Library searches were performed using Wiley Registry 9th Edition and Mass Spectral Library 08 MS Search an AMDIS V.2.0 for NIST.