Summary of project PR002213
This data is available at the NIH Common Fund's National Metabolomics Data Repository (NMDR) website, the Metabolomics Workbench, https://www.metabolomicsworkbench.org, where it has been assigned Project ID PR002213. The data can be accessed directly via it's Project DOI: 10.21228/M8K531 This work is supported by NIH grant, U2C- DK119886.
See: https://www.metabolomicsworkbench.org/about/howtocite.php
| Project ID: | PR002213 |
| Project DOI: | doi: 10.21228/M8K531 |
| Project Title: | Unraveling metabolism underpinning biomass composition shift in algae under simulated outdoor conditions using 13C fluxomics |
| Project Type: | Life Sciences |
| Project Summary: | Algae have been widely investigated due to their promise as sustainable hosts for production of biofuels and biochemicals, and amenability to large scale outdoor cultivation. Algae biomass compositional quality is a key determinant of its value since valuable components such as carbohydrates and lipids can be converted to biofuels and other chemicals. The carbohydrate and lipid fraction of biomass are typically enriched during later stages of cultivation when nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous are depleted. In this work, we present a 13C labeling study to unravel the metabolic changes underpinning the transition from high protein content biomass under nitrogen replete status to a carbohydrate and lipid rich biomass under nitrogen depleted state in Scenedesmus UTEX 393. UTEX 393 tends to first accumulate carbohydrates and subsequently lipids, under outdoor cultivation conditions. Our work provides a unique insight into algal metabolism as we perform this study in a custom-built reactor equipped to match raceway pond operation. This is crucial to bridge the gap between ‘ideal’ laboratory conditions and ‘real-world’ cultivation conditions. We show that the transition to carbohydrates is characterized by increased flux diverted to starch instead of replenishing the CBB cycle for CO2 fixation whereas the subsequent transition to lipids is fueled by NADPH produced by PEP carboxylase-ME cycle. The transition to lipid rich biomass is activated by first lowering the ATP/NADPH demand. Exogenous addition of malic acid showed a nearly two-fold lipid content under continuous illumination, however this improvement was significantly diminished under diel environmental conditions indicating that further work on diel flux dynamics is warranted. Our results will have a significant impact in further developing fluxomics methods for algae under real world conditions and guiding metabolic engineering strategies to control the flux of carbon to biofuels and biochemicals using a sustainable algae platform. |
| Institute: | National Renewable Energy Lab |
| Department: | Biosciences |
| Laboratory: | Laurens Lab |
| Last Name: | Laurens |
| First Name: | Lieve |
| Address: | 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado, 80401, USA |
| Email: | lieve.laurens@nrel.gov |
| Phone: | +1 720-273-6534 |
| Funding Source: | This work was financially supported by U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Bioenergy Technologies Office. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is operated for the US DOE under Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of the DOE or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this work, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. |
| Contributors: | Deshpande, A., Cawthon, B., Loob, J., Van Wychen, S., and Laurens, L.M.L |
Summary of all studies in project PR002213
| Study ID | Study Title | Species | Institute | Analysis(* : Contains Untargted data) | Release Date | Version | Samples | Download(* : Contains raw data) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ST003583 | Unraveling metabolism underpinning biomass composition shift in algae under simulated outdoor conditions using 13C fluxomics | Scenedesmus obliquus UTEX 393 | National Renewable Energy Lab | MS | 2025-12-01 | 1 | 18 | Uploaded data (11.4G)* |
