Rhodotorula mucilaginosa TJY15a which was isolated from surface of marine fish could accumulate a large amount of lipid from hydrolysate of cassava starch. The cells contained 47.9% (w/w) oil during batch cultivation, whereas 52.9% (w/w) of lipid was obtained during the fed-batch cultivation. At the end of the fed-batch cultivation, all the starch were converted into reducing sugar and only 0.34 g dm(-3) of reducing sugar was left in the fermented medium. Therefore, the marine-derived R. mucilaginosa TJY15a was another candidate for single cell oil production. The fatty acids from R. mucilaginosa TJY15a were mainly composed of palmitic acid (C-16:0), palmitoleic acid (C-16:1), stearic acid (C-18:0), oleic acid (C-18:1) and linolenic acid (C-18:2), suggesting that the fatty acids could be used as feedstock for biodiesel production. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.