Qingdao Energy reveals microalgae oil accumulation and its metabolic mechanism

Qingdao Energy reveals microalgae oil accumulation and its metabolic mechanism

Illustration: Culture of Nannochloropsis sp. with adequate nitrogen sources and different light intensities. (A) Schematic diagram of steady-state continuous culture. (B) Final growth of Nannochloropsis in culture tubes under different light intensity conditions. (C) Comparison of yields of biomass, oils, and neutral fats under different light intensities. HL, high light; ML, medium light; LL, low light.

The photosynthetic microalgae that can accumulate large amounts of lipids in cells is one of the most promising sources of biofuels. The metabolomics team of the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted systematic and in-depth research on the lipid accumulation and metabolism mechanism of microalgae, and realized the oil and biosynthesis of a representative algae strain of photosynthetic microalgae, Microchicoccus sp. Simultaneous accumulation of substances, related results were published online on June 6 at Algal Research.

The current most common strategy for the accumulation of lipids by microalgae is to promote oil accumulation through environmental stress under nutrient-limited conditions (most commonly nitrogen deficiency). However, the nutritional limitations of this strategy also lead to slow cell growth and biomass accumulation. Lower, eventually leading to low total oil production. Therefore, the simultaneous accumulation of oils and biomass is one of the major challenges for the production of biofuels by microalgae.

Xiao Yan, an associate researcher of the metabolomics team of Qingdao Energy Institute, found that Nannochloropsis can achieve oil and biomass by adjusting the light intensity in the light saturation region under steady-state continuous culture and nitrogen-free conditions without nutrient limitation. At the same time accumulated. By analyzing the lipid and metabolomes of Nannochloropsis under different light intensities, it was found that the oil accumulated under high light conditions is more conducive to improving the performance of biodiesel, and there is a transition from polar lipids to neutral lipids during the accumulation of lipids. The reduction of permeability.

In addition, under conditions of adequate nutrition, carbohydrates have accumulated a great deal, and the highest content is trehalose, accounting for 7%-11% of the total biomass, and may be used as a pressure protection or energy storage material. Elemental analysis showed that the biomass of Nannochloropsis spp. has high C/N ratio and total calorific value under high light conditions, which is more suitable for biofuels. The results of this research work indicate that light saturation-induced oil accumulation may be a better strategy for photosynthetic microalgae cultivation than oil accumulation induced by nutrient limitation.

The above research was completed by researchers Cui Qiu and Feng Yinang, and was supported by the Director of the Innovation Fund "135" Special Project, the "863" Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Shandong Provincial Outstanding Young Scientists Research Fund.

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