Abstract: The present invention relates to methods useful for converting microbial lipids from an oleaginous microbial biomass into fatty acid alcohol esters, without prior extraction of the lipids from the biomass. The present invention also relates to fatty acid alcohol esters produced by the methods described herein. The fatty acid alcohol esters produced by the methods described herein may be useful as biodiesel, or a component thereof. In embodiments, the converting of microbial lipids to fatty acid alcohol esters may be accomplished by contacting an acid catalyst, an alcohol and an oleaginous microbial biomass containing microbial lipids under sufficient conditions and for a sufficient period of time for in situ transesterification reaction of at least some microbial lipids to their corresponding fatty acid alcohol ester.

Abstract: This disclosure relates to the polynucleotide sequences of SEQ ID NO: 1 and SEQ ID NO: 4, and to the amino acid sequences of SEQ ID NO: 2 and SEQ ID NO: 3, and to novel fatty aldehyde reductase enzymes provided by the same.