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Updated: Mar 26, 2026

Author Spotlight: Developing Tools to Tune the Activity of Tyrosine Phosphatases
Published on: September 6, 2024
TOR (target of rapamycin) is a key regulator of triacylglycerol accumulation in microalgae
Sousuke Imamura1,2, Yasuko Kawase1, Ikki Kobayashi1
1a Chemical Resources Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology , Yokohama , Japan.
Abstract:
Most microalgae abundantly accumulate lipid droplets (LDs) containing triacylglycerols (TAGs) under several stress conditions, but the underlying molecular mechanism of this accumulation remains unclear. In a recent study, we found that inhibition of TOR (target of rapamycin), a highly conserved protein kinase of eukaryotes, by rapamycin resulted in TAG accumulation in microalgae, indicating that TOR negatively regulates TAG accumulation. Here, we show that formation of intracellular LDs and TAG accumulation were also induced in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii after exposure to Torin1 or AZD8055, which are novel TOR inhibitors that inhibit TOR activity in a manner different from rapamycin. These results supported quite well our previous conclusion that TOR is a central regulator of TAG accumulation in microalgae.
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