NADPH oxidase mutants show significant triacylglycerol accumulation without retardation of growth ability and cell damage under nitrogen starvation stress: new insights into a new target in lipid productivity improvement for biofuel industrialization

Title : NADPH oxidase mutants show significant triacylglycerol accumulation without retardation of growth ability and cell damage under nitrogen starvation stress: new insights into a new target in lipid productivity improvement for biofuel industrialization

Abstract:

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a model microalga for the study of fatt aacid biosynthesis and carbon allocation towards lipid accumulation in the form of triacylglycerol as lipid body after nitrogen starvation. Several studies have reveal the metabolic manipulation in the partition of membrane lipid to TAG accumulation such as the involvement of autophagy and reactive oxygen species. However, the growth of C. reinhardtii are inhibited and in turn, a decline in lipid production although lipid content per cell appears a significant increase t around 65-10% dry weight. Recently, the research on the maintenance of growth ability under nitrogen starvation shows a progress. The present study demonstrates that the mutation in respiratory burst oxidase (RBO) gene expression keeps the Chlamydomonas cells a 2-fold biomass production and high TAG accumulation ability by nitrogen shortage challenge. We propose that NADPH oxidase-mediated signalling pathway is associated with the Chlamydomonas growth and the inhibition of TAG formation. Further studies on the negative factors downstream NADPH oxidase for the blockage of fatty acid biosynthesis and TAG formation are necessary.

Biography:

Dr. Tse-Min Lee studied Agronomy at the National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan and graduated as MS in 1984. He then joined the research group of Prof. Chun Chu at the Institute of Agronomy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan. He received his PhD degree in 1990 at the same institution. After four year postdoctoral fellowship supervised by Drs Hsieh and Lin at the Acadmia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, he obtained the position of an Associate Professor at the National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. He has published more than 80 research articles in SCI(E) journals.