OVER EXPRESSION OF A DOF11 TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR TO INCREASE LIPID PRODUCTION IN Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Introduction. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a photosynthetic microalgae, which is now regarded as a new biotechnology platform (1).It has a multiple biotechnological advantages. In particular, it is a naturally fatty acid accumulator under stress (2). However, reduced biomass and lipids observed under these restrictive nutrient conditions (3). Since the fuel demand at the global level is increasing, the search of new fuel sources in a low-cost and environmentally friendly manner constitutes a priority. These characteristics are meeting by biofuels. Genetic engineering approaches to increase the accumulation of lipids in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is proposed as an alternative in this field. Interestingly, several plant genes encoding for transcription factors have been associated with the increase of total oil content when they are over expressed. This is the case of the soybean Dof11 transcription factor (4). In this study, we present a strategy to over express the Dof11 transcription factor in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in order to pursue the development of Chlamydomonas strains with improved capacity on fatty acid production.