Engineering the Novel Extremophile Alga for High Lipid and High Starch Production as a Path to Developing Commercially Relevant Strains.

Microalgae offer a compelling platform for the production of commodity products, due to their superior photosynthetic efficiency, adaptability to nonarable lands and nonpotable water, and their capacity to produce a versatile array of bioproducts, including biofuels and biomaterials. However, the scalability of microalgae as a bioresource has been hindered by challenges such as costly biomass production related to vulnerability to pond crashes during large-scale cultivation. This study presents a pipeline for the genetic engineering and pilot-scale production of biodiesel and thermoplastic polyurethane precursors in the extremophile species .

Establishing the green algae as a platform for recombinant protein production.

, a genetically close relative of the model green alga , shows significant potential as a host for recombinant protein expression. Because of the close genetic relationship between and , this species offers an additional reference point for advancing our understanding of photosynthetic organisms, and also provides a potential new candidate for biotechnological applications. This study investigates C.

Harnessing genetic engineering to drive economic bioproduct production in algae.

Our reliance on agriculture for sustenance, healthcare, and resources has been essential since the dawn of civilization. However, traditional agricultural practices are no longer adequate to meet the demands of a burgeoning population amidst climate-driven agricultural challenges. Microalgae emerge as a beacon of hope, offering a sustainable and renewable source of food, animal feed, and energy.

Developing algae as a sustainable food source.

Current agricultural and food production practices are facing extreme stress, posed by climate change and an ever-increasing human population. The pressure to feed nearly 8 billion people while maintaining a minimal impact on the environment has prompted a movement toward new, more sustainable food sources. For thousands of years, both the macro (seaweed and kelp) and micro (unicellular) forms of algae have been cultivated as a food source.

Mutational sources of -regulatory variation affecting gene expression in .

Heritable variation in a gene's expression arises from mutations impacting - and -acting components of its regulatory network. Here, we investigate how -regulatory mutations are distributed within the genome and within a gene regulatory network by identifying and characterizing 69 mutations with -regulatory effects on expression of the same focal gene in . Relative to 1766 mutations without effects on expression of this focal gene, we found that these -regulatory mutations were enriched in coding sequences of transcription factors previously predicted to regulate expression of the focal gene.