Enhancement of lipid production using biochemical, genetic and transcription factor engineering approaches.
This paper compares three possible strategies for enhanced lipid overproduction in microalgae: the biochemical engineering (BE) approaches, the genetic engineering (GE) approaches, and the transcription factor engineering (TFE) approaches. The BE strategy relies on creating a physiological stress such as nutrient-starvation or high salinity to channel metabolic fluxes to lipid accumulation. The GE strategy exploits our understanding to the lipid metabolic pathway, especially the rate-limiting enzymes, to create a channelling of metabolites to lipid biosynthesis by overexpressing one or more key enzymes in recombinant microalgal strains. The TFE strategy is an emerging technology aiming at enhancing the production of a particular metabolite by means of overexpressing TFs regulating the metabolic pathways involved in the accumulation of target metabolites. Currently, BE approaches are the most established in microalgal lipid production. The TFE is a very promising strategy because it may avoid the inhibitive effects of the BE approaches and the limitation of "secondary bottlenecks" as commonly observed in the GE approaches. However, it is still a novel concept to be investigated systematically.
Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Noémie Manuelle Dorval
NM
Courchesne
Albert
A
Parisien
Bei
B
Wang
Christopher Q
CQ
Lan
D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D004736:Energy-Generating Resources; D005818:Genetic Engineering / Q000379:methods*; D008055:Lipids / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
D008055:Lipids; D014157:Transcription Factors