Abstract
Background: Amphora coffeaeformis, a unicellular diatom, can accumulate large amounts of lipids under nitrogen (N) limitation, because of which it can act as a promising raw material for biodiesel production. However, the molecular mechanism underlying lipid accumulation in A. coffeaeformis remains unknown. Results: In this study, we investigated the mechanism underlying lipid accumulation under N deprivation conditions in A. coffeaeformis using RNA-seq. The results showed that the total lipid (TL) content of A. coffeaeformis in normal f/2 medium was 28.22% (TL/DW), which increased to 44.05% after 5 days of N deprivation, while the neutral lipid triacylglycerol (TAG) content increased from 10.41% (TAG/DW) to 25.21%. The transcriptional profile showed that 591 genes were up-regulated, with false discovery rate cutoff of 0.1%, and 1,021 genes were down-regulated, indicating that N deprivation induced wide-ranging reprogramming of regulation, and that most physiological activities were repressed. In addition, ribosome biogenesis, carbon fixation, and photosynthesis in A. coffeaeformis were considerably affected by N deprivation. Conclusions: In summary, the findings initially clarified the molecular mechanism of TAG accumulation and revealed the key genes involved in lipid metabolism in A. coffeaeformis, which will be useful in designing strategies for improving microalgal biodiesel production.