Phytosterol production from Phaeodactylum tricornutum: Insights into environmental conditions and their effect on gene expression
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Phytosterols are known to have cholesterol-lowering, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-atherogenic, neuro modulatory and neuro-protective activities which has led to their use in the pharmaceutical, neutraceutical and functional food industries.Higher plants are the current commercial source of phytosterols.Production of the oil obtained from higher plants may not be able to keep up with probable increases in phytosterol demand.Additionally, the extensive need for agricultural land and freshwater to grow higher plants to obtain phytosterols is not sustainable and hence there is a need for an alternate source.Microalgae produce phytosterols that are reported to have the same efficacy as those isolated from higher plants making this a potential alternative source of these compounds.Previous studies have noted that phytosterol content and composition in microalgae changes based on light, nutrient concentrations, salinity and temperature.However, only a few studies have been carried out on microalgae focusing on the effects of these culture conditions on the phytosterol content.This information is essential to assess the potential of microalgae as an alternate commercial source of these important compounds.Phaeodactylum tricornutum is known to produce phytosterols of commercial interest such as brassicasterol and campesterol.In addition, the availability of whole-genome sequence data, a putative sterol biosynthetic pathway and wellestablished molecular techniques provides a unique opportunity to map changes in P. tricornutum culture to changes in gene expression.This makes P. tricornutum a suitable candidate for phytosterol production studies.At present, the sterol biosynthetic pathway in P. tricornutum has been proposed based on in silico analysis and is not fully validated.The proposed biosynthetic pathway
Author: Ankitha Randhir
Language: English
Field: Energy
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Zero hunger
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3172811882