Transcriptomic analysis of the nitrogen deprivation effect in the microalgae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in photoautotrophy and mixotrophy

• Grant number: 18/16630-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2018
• End date: November 30, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Biochemistry - Molecular Biology
• Principal Investigator: Flavia Vischi Winck
• Grantee: Ícaro Sampaio Viana
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/06601-4 - Integrative systems approach for the study of gene expression regulatory networks related to biomass production in microalgae, AP.BIOEN.JP

Abstract

The study and application of microalgae in bioprocesses is still incipient, lacking significant advances in the knowledge of microalgae biology for the promotion of its use in biotechnological applications. The environmental condition known to most affect the physiology of cells in the sense of increasing the synthesis of neutral lipids, the Triacylglycerols, is nitrogen deprivation (N). Furthermore, it is known that N deprivation induces the quiescence phase in microalgae cells, where cellular metabolism is reprogrammed to survive in nutritionally unfavorable condition. The reduction of cell growth due to nitrogen deprivation impairs or reduces the benefits of the use of microalgae cultivation in biomass production processes at industrial scales. To better understand the responses to nitrogen deprivation and to analyze the possibility of increasing biomass production in these conditions through microalgae mixotrophic cultivation, we propose to analyze the effects of nitrogen deprivation on the biomass accumulation response and on the transcriptomic profile of microalgae cells Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In this way, we will be able to identify the biological pathways that may be involved with the cellular response control that leads to the reduction of microalgae growth in nitrogen deprivation. (AU)