Creation of lipid-hyper-producing Coccomyxa strains by utilizing transcriptome big data

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K05561
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 38060:Applied molecular and cellular biology-related
• Research Institution: Chuo University
• Principal Investigator: KASAI YUKI 中央大学, 研究開発機構, 専任研究員 (20416572)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: バイオディーゼル / 単細胞性緑藻 / トランスクリプトーム / ゲノム編集 / セルフクローニング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Coccomyxa mutants deficient in a DYRK1 accumulate lipids twice as fast as wild type strain. The transcriptome analysis showed that a lot of genes involved in lipid production were induced earlier in the DYRK1 mutants than in wild-type strain. For the breeding of Coccomyxa, DYRK1 gene was disrupted by CRISPR/Cas9-based genome editing method. CNX1G disrupted mutants that is unable to assimilate nitrate as a nitrogen source also created to prevent the leakage to outer environments.

Free Research Field

分子生物学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果はCoccomyxa属以外の微細藻類にも適用可能であり、微細藻が生産するバイオディーゼルの産業利用を促進することで化石燃料の使用量を減らしCO2排出削減に貢献することができる。また、本研究成果は油脂以外の機能性物質生産にも適用可能で、微細藻類を利用した有用物質生産の産業利用を促進することが期待できる。