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Involvement of phosphatidate phosphatase in the biosynthesis of triacylglycerols in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

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Abstract

Lipid biosynthesis is essential for eukaryotic cells, but the mechanisms of the process in microalgae remain poorly understood. Phosphatidic acid phosphohydrolase or 3-sn-phosphatidate phosphohydrolase (PAP) catalyzes the dephosphorylation of phosphatidic acid to form diacylglycerols and inorganic orthophosphates. This reaction is integral in the synthesis of triacylglycerols. In this study, the mRNA level of the PAP isoform CrPAP2 in a species of Chlamydomonas was found to increase in nitrogen-free conditions. Silencing of the CrPAP2 gene using RNA interference resulted in the decline of lipid content by 2.4%–17.4%. By contrast, over-expression of the CrPAP2 gene resulted in an increase in lipid content by 7.5%–21.8%. These observations indicate that regulation of the CrPAP2 gene can control the lipid content of the algal cells. In vitro CrPAP2 enzyme activity assay indicated that the cloned CrPAP2 gene exhibited biological activities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Tropical Crop Biotechnology, Ministry of Agriculture, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Haikou, 571101, China

    Xiao-dong Deng & Jia-jia Cai

  2. School of Science, Hainan Medical College, Haikou, 571101, China

    Xiao-wen Fei

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  1. Xiao-dong Deng
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  2. Jia-jia Cai
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  3. Xiao-wen Fei
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Correspondence to Xiao-wen Fei.

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Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 30960032 and 31000117), the Major Technology Project of Hainan (No. ZDZX2013023-1), the National Nonprofit Institute Research Grants (Nos. CATAS-ITBB110507 and CATAS-ITBB 130305), the Fundamental Scientific Research Funds for Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (No. 1630052013009), and the Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (No. 313077), China

Electronic supplementary materials: The online version of this article (doi:10.1631/jzus.B1300180) contains supplementary materials, which are available to authorized users

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Deng, Xd., Cai, Jj. & Fei, Xw. Involvement of phosphatidate phosphatase in the biosynthesis of triacylglycerols in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii . J. Zhejiang Univ. Sci. B 14, 1121–1131 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1631/jzus.B1300180

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