Extracellular secretion of free fatty acid from a highly oil-accumulation diatom

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26820357
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biofunction/Bioprocess
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Maeda Yoshiaki 東京農工大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (30711155)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 微細藻類 / バイオ燃料 / 遺伝子組み換え / 組み換えタンパク質 / リパーゼ / 発現誘導システム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Overexpression of lipase gene in the oleaginous diatom Fistulifera solari was performed in order to degrade triacylglycerol (TAG), and release free fatty acids from the transformant cells. However, the transformant only maintained the mutated lipase gene that lacked catalytically important residues, suggesting the cytotoxic effect of the lipase expression. To test whether the target lipase localize on the oil bodies, the mutated lipase-GFP fusion protein were expressed. Almost fusion protein exist in cytoplasm, while a part of the fusion protein was observed on the oil bodies. Although an inducible gene expression system could not be developed in this study, controlled expression of the target lipase is expected to be useful for degradation of TAG, and subsequent fatty acid secretion.

Free Research Field

生物工学