Studies on wax ester production in Euglena gracilis

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26850223
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental agriculture(including landscape science)
• Research Institution: Osaka Prefecture University
• Principal Investigator: Masami Nakazawa 大阪府立大学, 生命環境科学研究科(系), 助教 (90343417)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: バイオ燃料改質 / 低酸素下代謝 / ワックスエステル / ユーグレナ

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Euglena gracilis produces wax ester under hypoxic and anaerobic culture conditions. In wax ester fermentation, fatty acids are synthesized by reversing beta-oxidation in mitochondria. A major species of wax ester produced by E. gracilis is myristyl myristate. We reasoned that a slight metabolic modification would enable E. gracilis to produce a biofuel of ideal composition. In order to produce wax ester with shorter acyl chain length, we focused on isozymes of the enzyme 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase (KAT), a condensing enzyme of the mitochondrial fatty acid synthesis pathway in E. gracilis. Our gene silencing study of KAT isozymes revieled that three of six isozymes altered the wax ester amount and composition. In particular, silencing EgKAT1 induced a significant compositional shift to shorter carbon chain lengths in wax ester.

Free Research Field

細胞生理学