Engineering a marine microalga Chlorella sp. as the cell factory

作者：Xinping Gu, Ying Deng, Aoqi Wang, Qinhua Gan, Xin Yi, Kalyanee Paithoonrangsarid, Yandu Lu · 发表于：Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1186/s13068-023-02384-2 · 被引用次数：11 · 研究领域：Algal biology and biofuel production、Photosynthetic Processes and Mechanisms、Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction

Abstract The use of marine microalgae in industrial systems is attractive for converting CO 2 into value-added products using saline water and sunlight. The plant nature and demonstrated industrial potential facilitate Chlorella spp. as excellent model organisms for both basic research and commercial application. However, the transformation method has not been developed in marine Chlorella spp., thus genetic engineering is hindered in exploiting the industrial potentialities of these strains. In this study, we provided a transformation protocol for the marine Chlorella strain MEM25, which showed robust characteristics, including high production of proteins and polyunsaturated fatty acids in multiple cultivation systems over various spatial–temporal scales. We showed that transformants could be obtained in a dramatically time-saving manner (comparable to Saccharomyces cerevisiae ) with four functional proteins expressed properly . The transgenes are integrated into the genome and can be successfully inherited for more than two years. The development of a marine Chlorella transformation method, in combination with the complete genome, will greatly facilitate more comprehensive mechanism studies and provide possibilities to use this species as chassis for synthetic biology to produce value-added compounds with mutual advantage in neutralization of CO 2 in commercial scales.