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Lipid accumulation and metabolic analysis based on transcriptome sequencing of filamentous oleaginous microalgae Tribonema minus at different growth phases

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Abstract

Filamentous oleaginous microalgae specie Tribonema minus is a promising feedstock for biodiesel production. However, the metabolic mechanism of lipid production in this filamentous microalgal specie remains unclear. Here, we compared the lipid accumulation of T. minus at different growth phases, and described the de novo transcriptome sequencing and assembly and identified important pathways and genes involved in TAG production. Total lipid increased by 2.5-fold and its TAG level in total lipid reached 81.1% at stationary phase. Using the genes involved in the lipid metabolism, the TAG biosynthesis pathways were generated. Moreover, results also demonstrated that, in addition to the observed overexpression of the fatty acid synthesis pathway, TAG production at stationary growth phase was bolstered by repression of the β-oxidation pathway, up-regulation of genes that funnels acetyl-CoA to lipid biosynthesis, especially gene encoding for phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferase (PDAT) which funnels DAG to TAG biosynthesis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by Research Program of Application Foundation of Qingdao (Grant No. 16-5-1-68-jch) from Qingdao Science and Technology Bureau, National Key R&D program from Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant No. 2016YFB0601001-02) and Marine economic innovation and development regional demonstration project of Qingdao.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biofuel, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao, 266101, People’s Republic of China

    Hui Wang, Lili Gao, Huimin Shao, Wenjun Zhou & Tianzhong Liu

  2. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Bioenergy Resources, Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qindao, 266101, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Hui Wang, Lili Gao, Wenjun Zhou & Tianzhong Liu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Huimin Shao

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  1. Hui Wang
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  2. Lili Gao
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  3. Huimin Shao
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  4. Wenjun Zhou
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  5. Tianzhong Liu
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Correspondence to Tianzhong Liu.

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Wang, H., Gao, L., Shao, H. et al. Lipid accumulation and metabolic analysis based on transcriptome sequencing of filamentous oleaginous microalgae Tribonema minus at different growth phases. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 40, 1327–1335 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1791-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-017-1791-1

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