Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Biofuel can be produced sustainably by oleaginous microalgae when they are grown in nitrogen limited conditions. Fistulifera solaris JPCC DA0580 demonstrates higher lipid accumulation as a percentage of cell weight than other diatoms in nitrogen limited conditions. These features make it a solid candidate for biofuel production so we compared the gene expression of F. solaris with its close relative and a model diatom, Phaeodactylum tricornutum. The gene expression of the two diatoms cultured in low nitrogen conditions were used to calculate the difference in fold change expression. We selected genes exhibiting significantly different fold change differences and divided them into groups based on the direction of the fold change. These groups were characterised by the gene ontologies of known genes within their respective groups and the degree of fold change differences between the two diatoms in each group. The gene ontologies and fold change differences helped to highlight the differences in the way P. tricornutum adjusted to the low nitrogen conditions compared with F. solaris. Our results indicate that F. solaris maintains the expression of genes related to oxidative stress response. In contrast, the up-regulated P. tricornutum genes were related to nitrogen metabolism, and energy metabolism.