Lipid metabolism in microalgae distinguishes itself

Microalgae are attracting renewed interest from both the scientific and public communities owing to their potential applications as sustainable feed stocks for the production of biofuels and high value compounds, and environmental remediation. Recent advances in molecular and biochemical analyses of microalgae point toward interesting differences in lipid metabolism between algal species and in comparison to plants. These differences range from distinct acyl groups present in algal lipids, to a possible more direct role of plastids in the assembly of TAGs with consequences for the overall subcellular organization of glycerolipid metabolism. Thus, studying lipid metabolism in microalgae points to new possible avenues of genetic engineering of lipid metabolism in this organism group, and may also inform studies of lipid metabolism in plants.

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► Triacylglycerol assembly in microalgae might occur at plastid envelopes.
► Starch-less mutants provide clues for the engineering of carbon partitioning in algae.
► New algal species emerge as models for lipid and biofuel research.