“…The idea of utilization of whey by the above-mentioned microorganisms was based on the fact that these microorganisms could present satisfactory growth on pure Lac utilized as the sole substrate; M. isabellina presented efficient Lac breakdown and consumption in nitrogen-limited media, whereas surprisingly enough, despite remarkable Lac assimilation, very feeble activity of b-galactosidase was detected [32]. Although a number of publications deal with the potentiality of SCO production by using whey as a microbial substrate principally by oleaginous yeasts [4,12,13,[35][36][37][38], this renewable material has never been previously used as a substrate by oleaginous Zygomycetes, since the sugar Lac, despite the previous investigation of our team in relation with M. isabellina [32] and our preliminary trials concerning T. elegans and Mucor sp., is generally considered as not an adequate substrate for the growth of these types of microorganisms [18,19,39,40]. strains on Lac-based carbon-limited (initial Lac adjusted at 10 g/L) resulted in complete Lac consumption within 100 h after inoculation with simultaneous biomass production of 4.5-5.5 g/L.…”