Discovering the potential of bioenergy microalga through DNA

Microalgae are a promising source of biofuels and other bioproducts, with the potential to produce a significant portion of the world's future energy requirements. Nannochlorpopsis salina is one type of microalga currently being used for biodiesel production, because of its natural characteristics such as oil production, robustness and growth rate. Understanding the genomic content of N. salina will facilitate detailed analyses of genetic pathways and traits related to various aspects of fuel production. Furthermore, this knowledge may be used to biologically engineer the organism for increased fuel production in large-scale growth systems. The goals of this work include sequencing the genome of N. salina using 454 & Solexa sequencing technologies. Additionally, a bacterial metagenomics project was initiated which will characterize all bacteria in Solix's algae production systems by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to amplify fragements of DNA and thereafter use 454 technologies to sequence the DNA fragments. These are two components of an ongoing international collaboration among Solix Biofuels, Colorado State University (CSU) and the Chinese Academy of Science' Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (CAS-QIBEBT).