Abstract:
Microalgae have emerged as one of the potential candidate for oil production due to
its capability to accumulate more than 20 % of oil content in its cell dry weight. The
utilization of microalgae for oil production has been studied intensively in recent
years, focusing mostly on manipulating the culture conditions to obtain maximum oil
yield and desired fatty acid composition for specific downstream applications.
However, there are still limited studies to improve oil-producing strains via genetic
engineering and elucidate the regulation of fatty acid biosynthesis pathway at the
genomic level. Therefore, this study demonstrated the genetic modification of
Chlorella vulgaris by targeting the omega-3 desaturase gene, the translated product of
which is responsible for the desaturation of linoleic acid (C18:2) to α-linolenic acid
(C18:3n3). A copy of the disrupted omega-3 fatty acid desaturase (ω-3 FAD) gene
vector cassette was transformed into the C. vulgaris UMT-M1 genome through
Agrobacterium-mediated transformation and the transgene effect on fatty acid
