Enhancement of lipid accumulation in microalgae by metabolic engineering

Microalgal lipids have drawn great attention as a promising sustainable resource for biodiesel or food supplement production. The development of high-performance strains of microalgae by metabolic engineering is invaluable for increasing the quantity or quality of desired lipids. The synthesis routes of lipids used as biodiesel in microalgae are based on fatty acid synthase (FAS) and triacylglycerols (TAG) biosynthesis pathway. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), including ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acids, are essential nutrients for humans. Notably, microalgae possess two distinct pathways for polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) biosynthesis, including the desaturase/elongase pathway and the polyketide synthase (PKS) pathway. Thus, it is necessary to identify which biosynthetic pathways are responsible for PUFA synthesis in particular microalgae species. In recent years, various key enzymes and functional domains involved in fatty acid and TAG biosynthesis pathway were identified and potentially regulated by genetic engineering approaches to elevate specific lipids content. In addition, other studies have reported the implementation of strategies to increase lipid accumulation based on increasing acetyl-CoA/NADPH supply, enhancing photosynthetic efficiency, or blocking competing pathways. Furthermore, other efforts have used transcription factor engineering to simultaneously regulate multiple genes related to lipid accumulation. This review summarizes recent research about a variety of microalgae lipid biosynthesis pathways, and discusses multiple gene manipulation strategies that have been employed for specific lipid overproduction in industrial microalgae. •Metabolic engineering of microalgae for producing biodiesel is reviewed.•Metabolic engineering of microalgae for producing food supplements is reviewed.•Two distinct polyunsaturated fatty acids biosynthesis pathway is discussed.•Regulation of lipid production by transcription factor engineering is summarized.•Further prospects on improvement microalgal lipids production is proposed.