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Molecular mechanism of arachidonic acid biosynthesis in Porphyridium purpureum promoted by nitrogen limitation

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Abstract

The red alga Porphyridium purpureum has been known to produce polyunsaturated fatty acids, especially arachidonic acid (ARA), under stressful conditions. However, there is no consistent conclusion about the response of ARA in this alga to nitrogen (N) stress. Also, no research has been done to clearly elucidate the underlying molecular mechanisms of N stress. In this work, P. purpureum CoE1 was cultivated under nitrogen limitation conditions and the putative Δ5-desaturase related gene FADSD5 was isolated. The results showed that the fatty acids in P. purpureum CoE1 were significantly higher in the N limited cultures (54.3 mg g−1) than in the N-replete cultures (45.3 mg g−1) at the 18th day (t-test, p < 0.001), which was attributed to the upregulated abundance of the putative Δ5-desaturase related protein, Δ5-Des. The study also indicated that the expression of the putative Δ5-desaturase related gene, FADSD5, increased with cell growth, demonstrating considerable potentials for ARA biosynthesis in P. purpureum CoE1. These results might guide the direction in illuminating the biosynthetic pathway of fatty acids with molecular evidence and enable genetic modifications of P. purpureum CoE1 for enhancing the ARA accumulation.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful for funding supported by the special fund for Fujian Ocean High-Tech Industry Development (No. FJHJF-L-2018-1), China and the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province of China (Grant No. 2019J06005).

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Author notes

  1. Kailin Jiao and Wupeng Xiao contribute equally.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Energy, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, People’s Republic of China

    Kailin Jiao, Xing Tang, Yong Sun, Xianhai Zeng & Lu Lin

  2. State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science/Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for Coastal Ecology and Environmental Studies, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Wupeng Xiao

  3. College of Biological Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fujian, 350116, China

    Xingguo Shi

  4. State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150006, China

    Shih-Hsin Ho

  5. Department of Chemical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan, People’s Republic of China

    Jo-Shu Chang & I-Son Ng

  6. College of Chemistry and Environment, Minnan Normal University, Zhangzhou, 363000, China

    Kailin Jiao

  7. Fujian Engineering and Research Center of Clean and High‑Valued Conversion Technology for Biomass, Xiamen Key Laboratory of Clean and High‑valued Conversion Technology of Biomass, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Xing Tang, Yong Sun, Xianhai Zeng & Lu Lin

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  1. Kailin Jiao
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Correspondence to Xianhai Zeng.

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Jiao, K., Xiao, W., Shi, X. et al. Molecular mechanism of arachidonic acid biosynthesis in Porphyridium purpureum promoted by nitrogen limitation. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 44, 1491–1499 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-021-02533-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-021-02533-7

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