Banana (Musa spp.) is a staple food for more than 400 million people. Over 40% of world production and virtually all the export trade is based on Cavendish banana. However, Cavendish banana is under threat from a virulent fungus, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (TR4) for which no acceptable resistant replacement has been identified. Here we report the identification of transgenic Cavendish with resistance to TR4. In our 3-year field trial, two lines of transgenic Cavendish, one transformed with RGA2, a gene isolated from a TR4-resistant diploid banana, and the other with a nematode-derived gene, Ced9, remain disease free. Transgene expression in the RGA2 lines is strongly correlated with resistance. Endogenous RGA2 homologs are also present in Cavendish but are expressed tenfold lower than that in our most resistant transgenic line. The expression of these homologs can potentially be elevated through gene editing, to provide non-transgenic resistance.

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Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) catalyzes the conversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) and NADH to glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) and NAD(+). G3P is important as a precursor for glycerol and glycerolipid synthesis in microalgae. A GPDH enzyme has been previously purified from the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, however, no genes coding for GPDH have been characterized before. In this study, we report the in silico characterization of three putative GPDH genes from C. reinhardtii: CrGPDH1, CrGPDH2, and CrGPDH3. These sequences showed a significant similarity to characterized GPDH genes from the microalgae Dunaliella salina and Dunaliella viridis. The prediction of the three-dimensional structure of the proteins showed the characteristic fold topology of GPDH enzymes. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis showed that the three CrGPDHs share the same clade with characterized GPDHs from Dunaliella suggesting a common evolutionary origin and a similar catalytic function. In addition, the K(a)/K(s) ratios of these sequences suggested that they are under purifying selection. Moreover, the expression analysis showed a constitutive expression of CrGPDH1, while CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 were induced in response to osmotic stress, suggesting a possible role for these two sequences in the synthesis of glycerol as a compatible solute in osmoregulation, and perhaps also in lipid synthesis in C. reinhardtii. This study has provided a foundation for further biochemical and genetic studies of the GPDH family in this model microalga, and also opportunities to assess the potential of these genes to enhance the synthesis of TAGs for biodiesel production.

The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of the green microalga Chlorella saccharophila as a source of oil for biodiesel production. We evaluated for the first time, the effect of salinity and/or nitrogen depletion (ND) on cell growth, lipid accumulation and lipid profile in this microalga. The fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) identified for C. saccharophila in this study consisted of C-16:0, C-18:0, C-18:1 cis, and C-18:1 trans. Among these, C-18:1 (indicator of biodiesel quality) was the main FAME found, representing approximately 76 and 80% of total FAME under normal and ND growing conditions, respectively. Under a normal growing condition this microalga showed 154.63 mg l(-1) d(-1), 63.33 mg l(-1) d(-1), and 103.73 mg l(-1) of biomass productivity, lipid productivity, and FAME yield, respectively. The higher biomass productivity (159.58 mg l(-1) d(-1)), lipid productivity (99.33 mg l(-1) d(-1)), and FAME yield (315.53 mg l(-1)) were obtained under the ND treatment. In comparison to other related studies, our results suggest that C. saccharophila can be considered as a suitable source of oil for biodiesel production.

Glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH) catalyzes the conversion of dihydroxyacetone phosphate (DHAP) to glycerol-3-phosphate (G3P) and plays a central role in the synthesis of glycerol and triacylglycerides (TAGs). Osmotic stress has been shown to induce the accumulation of glycerol and TAGs in the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In a previous study, we identified three GPDH homologs (CrGPDH1, CrGPDH2, and CrGPDH3) in this microalga. We found that CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 were expressed in response to 200 mM NaCl treatment, suggesting that these two genes play roles in glycerol and TAGs synthesis and in osmotic stress tolerance. In this study, we report on the functional characterization of CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3. A concentration of NaCl as low as 5 mM for 5 min was sufficient to induce the expressions of both genes. We mapped the cDNA ends of CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 using RLM-RACE and cloned their full-length cDNAs. The expression of these two cDNAs in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae gpd1Δgpd2Δ double mutant confirmed that both CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 have GPDH activity. The genetic complementation analysis revealed that CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 were able to restore glycerol production and rescue the salt sensitivity of this mutant. Compared with CrGPDH3, CrGPDH2 conferred higher glycerol production and greater salt tolerance when expressed in the gpd1Δgpd2Δ double mutant. Together, these findings show that CrGPDH2 and CrGPDH3 encode functional homologs of the S. cerevisiae GPD1 gene that is involved in glycerol synthesis and osmotic stress tolerance.

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