Abstract:A high lipids producing strain，KC 8，was selected from 15 yeast strains which were stored in our lab.KC8 could produce 1.22 g/L lipids after 96 h flask fermentation.Analysis on the 26S rDNA sequence indicated that KC 8 had 100%identity with Rhodotorula mucilaginosa.Using KC 8 as a starting strain，atmosphericand room temperature plasma（ARTP）was used to induce mutation for screening strains of higher lipids production.Finally，Y 3 was obtained from 300 strains of screening.The yield of lipid was 2.38 g/L after 96 hours flask fermentation by Y 3.After optimized the fermentation conditions，the lipid productivity reached 3.96 g/L under the following conditions：glucose as carbon source，（NH4）2SO4as nitrogen source，ratio of carbon to nitrogen at 90∶1，initial pH 6.5，incubated at 28℃for 96 h shaking fermentation.Gas chromatography-mass spectrometer（GC-MS）analysis indicated that the fatty acids were mainly composed of palmic acid，oleic acid，linoleic acid，stearic acid，eicosenoic acid and tetracosanoic acid.The compositions of fatty acids were similar to those of vegetable oil．