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BackgroundOdd chain fatty acids (odd FAs) have a wide range of applications in therapeutic and nutritional industries, as well as in chemical industries including biofuel. Yarrowia lipolytica is an oleaginous yeast considered a preferred microorganism for the production of lipid-derived biofuels and chemicals. However, it naturally produces negligible amounts of odd chain fatty acids.ResultsThe possibility of producing odd FAs using Y. lipolytica was investigated. Y. lipolytica wild-type strain was shown able to grow on weak acids; acetate, lactate, and propionate. Maximal growth rate on propionate reached 0.24 ± 0.01 h−1 at 2 g/L, and growth inhibition occurred at concentration above 10 g/L. Wild-type strain accumulated lipids ranging from 7.39 to 8.14% (w/w DCW) depending on the carbon source composition, and odd FAs represented only 0.01–0.12 g/L. We here proved that the deletion of the PHD1 gene improved odd FAs production, which reached a ratio of 46.82% to total lipids. When this modification was transferred to an obese strain, engineered for improving lipid accumulation, further increase odd FAs production reaching a total of 0.57 g/L was shown. Finally, a fed-batch co-feeding strategy was optimized for further increase odd FAs production, which generated 0.75 g/L, the best production described so far in Y. lipolytica.ConclusionsA Y. lipolytica strain able to accumulate high level of odd chain fatty acids, mainly heptadecenoic acid, has been successfully developed. In addition, a fed-batch co-feeding strategy was optimized to further improve lipid accumulation and odd chain fatty acid content. These lipids enriched in odd chain fatty acid can (1) improve the properties of the biodiesel generated from Y. lipolytica lipids and (2) be used as renewable source of odd chain fatty acid for industrial applications. This work paves the way for further improvements in odd chain fatty acids and fatty acid-derived compound production.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s13068-018-1154-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.