Algae's Altered Bioclock Promises to Boost Biofuel Production

A joint research by scientists from Vanderbilt University, J. Craig Venter Institute and Waseda University (Japan) has found that manipulating the biological clock of cyanobacteria to remain in its daytime setting can boost the production of algal biofuel and other commercially valuable compounds.

Microalgae are widely used for the production of biofuels and high-value biomolecules. Scientists have entirely mapped the bioclock mechanism in cyanobacteria, which is the simplest bioclock found in nature. Detailed knowledge of the clock's structure has allowed researchers to determine how to switch the clock on and off.

Scientists now know that the algae's bioclock consists of three proteins: KaiA, KaiB and KaiC. In the study published in the journal Current Biology, the researchers discovered that the KaiA and KaiC components act as switches that turn the cell's daytime and nighttime genes on and off. To lock the algae's bioclock into its daylight configuration, they only needed to produce more KaiA by genetically upregulating its expression.

To demonstrate the effect of tricking cyanobacteria's bioclock on its ability to produce commercially important compounds, the researchers inserted a gene for human insulin in some of the cyanobacteria cells, a gene for a fluorescent protein (luciferase) in other cells and a gene for hydrogenase, an enzyme that produces hydrogen gas, in yet others. They found that the cells with the locked clocks produced 200 percent more hydrogenase, 500 percent more insulin and 700 percent more luciferase when grown in constant light than they did when the genes were inserted in cells with normally functioning clocks.