Glycerol and neutral lipid production in the oleaginous marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum promoted by overexpression of glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase

By Yanqiu Yao, Yang Lu, Kun-Tao Peng, Tan-chi Huang, Ying-Fang Niu, W. Xie, Wei-dong Yang, Jie‐sheng Liu, Hong-ye Li. Biotechnology for Biofuels, 2014

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BackgroundMicroalgae are ideal raw materials for biodiesel and bioactive compounds. Glycerol-3-phosphate is formed from dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) through the glycolytic pathway catalyzed by glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH).ResultsGPDH was characterized in the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. In the GPDH-overexpressing P. tricornutum cells, the glycerol concentration per cell in the transformed diatom increased by 6.8-fold compared with the wild type, indicating that the overexpression of GPDH promoted the conversion of DHAP to glycerol-3-phosphate. There was a 60% increase in neutral lipid content, reaching 39.7% of dry cell weight in transgenic cells in the stationary phase, despite a 20% decrease in cell concentration. Fatty acid profiling showed that the levels of 16- and 18-carbon monounsaturated fatty acids significantly increased.ConclusionGPDH had a significant impact on numerous metabolic processes in diatom cells, including the biosynthesis of glycerol and neutral lipids. These findings are instructive for the metabolic engineering of microalgae for biofuel production.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b54726993a982d27fd3837f415d5b23b35e4b7a8