In this study, we found that Rhodotorula mucilaginosa TJY15a could accumulate 48.8% (w/w) oil from hydrolysate of inulin and its cell dry weight reached 14.8 g/l during the batch cultivation while it could accumulate 48.6% (w/w) oil and 52.2% (w/w) oil from hydrolysate of extract of Jerusalem artichoke tubers and its cell dry weight reached 14.4 g/l and 19.5 g/l during the batch and fed-batch cultivations, respectively. At the end of the fed-batch cultivation, only 0.04% of reducing sugar and 0.08% of total sugar were left in the fermented medium. Over 87.6% of the fatty acids from the yeast strain TJY15a cultivated in the hydrolysate of extract of Jerusalem artichoke tubers was C(16:0), C(18:1) and C(18:2), especially C(18:1) (54.7%). Therefore, the results show that hydrolysates of inulin and extract of Jerusalem artichoke tubers were also the good materials for single cell oil production. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.