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NITROGEN STARVATION INDUCES THE ACCUMULATION OF ARACHIDONIC ACID IN THE FRESHWATER GREEN ALGA PARIETOCHLORIS INCISA (TREBUXIOPHYCEAE) 1
Author(s) -
KhozinGoldberg Inna,
Bigogno Chiara,
Shrestha Pushkar,
Cohen Zvi
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of phycology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.85
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1529-8817
pISSN - 0022-3646
DOI - 10.1046/j.1529-8817.2002.01160.x
Subject(s) - arachidonic acid , biology , polyunsaturated fatty acid , algae , fatty acid , botany , dry weight , nitrogen , food science , biochemistry , biosynthesis , biomass (ecology) , starvation , ecology , organic chemistry , gene , chemistry , enzyme , endocrinology
The Chlorophyte Parietochloris incisa comb. nov (Trebuxiophyceae) was found to be the richest plant source of the pharmaceutically valuable long‐chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), arachidonic acid (20:4ω6, AA). Over 90% of total AA are deposited in triacylglycerols (TAG). Under nitrogen starvation, the fatty acid content constituted over 35% of dry weight and the proportion of AA exceeded 60% of total fatty acids. Consequently, we obtained an AA content of over 20%. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest reported content of any PUFA in algae. Increasing the biomass concentration resulted in an enhancement of both the proportion of AA and the fatty acid content. We hypothesize that one of the roles of TAG in P . incisa is to serve as a reservoir of AA that can be used for the construction of membranal lipids.