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Updated: Jan 21, 2026

Cultivation of Green Microalgae in Bubble Column Photobioreactors and an Assay for Neutral Lipids
Published on: January 7, 2019
Storage of starch and lipids in microalgae: Biosynthesis and manipulation by nutrients
Wenyi Ran1, Haitao Wang2, Yinghui Liu3
1Department of Pharmaceutical & Biological Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, Sichuan 610065, China.
Abstract:
Microalgae accumulate starch and lipid as storage metabolites under nutrient depletion, which can be used as sustainable feedstock for biorefinery. Omics analysis coupled with enzymatic and genetic verifications uncovered a partial picture of pathways and important enzymes or regulators related to starch and lipid biosynthesis as well as the carbon partitioning between them under nutrient depletion conditions. Depletion of macronutrients (N, P, and S) resulted in considerable enhancement of starch and/or lipid content in microalgae, but the accompanying declined photosynthesis hampered the achievements of high concentrations. This review summarized the current knowledge on the pathways and the committed steps as well as their carbon allocation involved in starch and lipid biosynthesis, and focused on the manipulation of different nutrients and the alleviation of oxidative stress for enhanced storage metabolites production. The biological and engineering approaches to cope with the conflict between biomass production and storage metabolites accumulation are proposed.
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