The Selective Breeding of the Freshwater Microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for Growth in Salinity
Abstract
The potential for Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to be utilized for biofuel production was strengthened by developing it for growth in elevated salinity via the selective breeding method of genome shuffling. A population was constructed via random mutagenesis and subjected to multiple rounds of sex and growth in increasing salinity. This sexual line was capable of growth in up to 700 mM NaCl, unlike its progenitor, which could only grow in 300 mM NaCl. An asexual control line was capable of growth in 500 mM NaCl. Palmelloid aggregations increased in size and the concentration of final biomass decreased as a function of NaCl concentration, which poses considerations for future strain development. The sexual line maintained sexual efficiencies of up to 50% over the course of selection. This investigation achieved significant strain improvement of C. reinhardtii and demonstrated the clear advantage of its ability to participate in laboratory controlled and reproducible high efficiency sex.
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Traditional approaches like selective breeding, strain development, and environmental adaptation have long been used to improve algal traits, but require extended periods.
“Traditional approaches like selective breeding and strain development [107,108] and environmental adaptation [109,110] have long been used to improve algal traits.However, both methods typically require extended periods of time to achieve significant improvements.”
From A Review of Algae-Based Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (Algae-Based CCUS) (2024) · cites this paper as [107]
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- Authors
- Takouridis, S. J., Tribe, D. E., Gras, S. L., & Martin, G. J. O.
- Affiliations
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Takouridis, Simon J.
- Venue
- Bioresource Technology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-05
- Volume
- 184
- Pages
- 18-22
- ISSN
- 0960-8524 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1976661466
- Cited by
- 40
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 3
- FWCI
- 1.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Bioresource Technology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Australian Government
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Algal biology and biofuel production
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Microbial Metabolic Engineering and Bioproduction
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agronomy and Crop Science › Bioenergy crop production and management
- Keywords
- Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, genome shuffling, selective breeding, salt tolerance, NaCl stress, sexual selection, random mutagenesis, microalgal biomass
- MeSH terms
- Selective Breeding, Fresh Water, Particle Size, Reproduction, Sodium Chloride, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Biomass, DNA Shuffling, Salinity, Microalgae
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