Article · Volume 9, Issue 4 · pp. 496–501

Impacts of Nitrogen Starvation on Expression Profiles of Involving Genes in Triacylglycerol Biosynthesis in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: Towards Microalgal Systems Biotechnology

Mohammad Hossein Morowvat¹, Younes Ghasemi²

¹Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 71345-1583, Shiraz, IRAN.
²Department of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Pharmacy, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, P.O. Box 71468-64685, Shiraz, IRAN.

Abstract

Objective: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, the most commonly studied model organism in microalgal kingdom, is known to be a rich lipid producer.Methods: Here, a naturally isolated C. reinhardtii strain was cultivated phototrophically at Erlenmeyer scale in BG11 culture medium. After reaching to stationary growth phase, a nitrogen limited regime with different nitrogen concentrations was applied.Results: Quantitative real time PCR analysis of DGTT1 and DGTT2 genes involved in triacylglycerol accumulation confirmed an increased level of expression for DGTT1 (21.05-fold increase) in nitrogen starvation compared with the nitrogen rich conditions. Besides, DGTT2 transcript levels showed a slight decrease in nitrogen deprivation condition (0.61-fold).Conclusion: The results opened a new way to direct microalgal systems biotechnology towards maximization of triacylglycerol production for green energy production.

Keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Expression profile; Nitrogen starvation; Systems biotechnology; Triacylglycerol

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