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Truncated light-harvesting chlorophyll antenna size in Chlorella vulgaris improves biomass productivity

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Abstract

Microalgae have been proposed as eco-friendly feedstocks for biodiesel production, because they accumulate large amounts of lipids and increase their biomass through photosynthesis. However, the photosynthetic efficiency of microalgae is too low for this strategy to be economically feasible. In an effort to overcome this issue, random mutants with reduced chlorophyll antenna size were generated by ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS)-mediated mutagenesis of Chlorella vulgaris. The antenna size mutant, herein designated E5, exhibited 56.5 and 75.8 % decreases in chlorophyll a and b contents, respectively, with significant reductions in the expression levels of peripheral light-harvesting antenna proteins in photosystem II. The saturated photosynthetic activity and electron transport rate of the E5 mutant were significantly higher and also showed reduced non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), compared to those of the wild type. Consequentially, the E5 mutant cultures achieved 44.5 % improvement in biomass productivity under high light (200 μmol photons m−2 s−1). These results suggest that improving the photosynthetic efficiency of microalgae could greatly enhance their biomass production, and such mutant strains can be applicable for large-scale outdoor cultivation which is typically exposed to high light intensity.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Advanced Biomass R&D Center (ABC) of Global Frontier Project, funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (ABC-2010-0029728 and 2011–0031350) and a grant from the Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2015R1C1A1A01054303).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea

      Won-Sub Shin, Bongsoo Lee, Byeong-ryool Jeong & Yong Keun Chang

    2. Advanced Biomass R&D Center, KAIST, 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, 305-701, South Korea

      Yong Keun Chang

    3. Department of Food Science and Technology, Institute of Agriculture and Life Science, Gyeongsang National University, Jinju, 660-701, South Korea

      Jong-Hee Kwon

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    1. Won-Sub Shin
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    2. Bongsoo Lee
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    Correspondence to Jong-Hee Kwon.

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    Won-Sub Shin and Bongsoo Lee contributed equally to this work.

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    Shin, WS., Lee, B., Jeong, Br. et al. Truncated light-harvesting chlorophyll antenna size in Chlorella vulgaris improves biomass productivity. J Appl Phycol 28, 3193–3202 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0874-8

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0874-8

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