A diagram illustrating the strategy used in this study to produce HMFS in Y. lipolytica, using glycerol, glucose and/or palm oil as substrates. Heterologous expression of an LPAT with 16:0-CoA specificity (green arrow) was used to enable 16:0 to be esterified to the sn-2 position of 1-LPA and the product PA is then metabolised to TAG. Green and red asterisks mark modifications in an obese strain (Lazar et al., 2014) used to increase lipid accumulation. FAS, fatty acid synthase; β-OX, peroxisomal FA β-oxidation; 16:0, palmitic acid; 16:1, palmitoleic acid; 18:0 stearic acid, 18:1, oleic acid; 18:2, linoleic acid; CoA, Coenzyme A; G3P, glycerol-3-phosphate; 1-LPA, sn-1 lysophosphatidic acid; PA, phosphatidic acid, DAG, diacylglycerol, TAG, triacylglycerol; PL, major phospholipids. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the Web version of this article.)