There are provided microorganisms having a property of producing a lipid
containing unsaturated fatty acids as constituent fatty acids and
extracellularly secreting the produced lipid encapsulated in lipid
vesicles, methods of screening said microorganisms, as well as methods of
efficiently producing a fatty acid-containing lipid using said
microorganisms. Furthermore, there are provided lipid vesicles
encapsulating a lipid containing unsaturated fatty acids, and foods,
cosmetics, and animal feeds comprising said lipid vesicles added thereto.
Artificially treated microorganisms or microorganisms collected from
nature are grown on a solid medium, and microbial strains that form lipid
vesicles at the periphery of the colonies and/or microbial strains that,
when cultured in a transparent liquid medium, make the culture liquid
cloudy are selected. The microorganisms obtained are cultured,
lipid-containing lipid vesicles secreted in the culture liquid, are
separated from the culture liquid, and the lipid is separated and
purified.