Oleaginous microalgae synthesize and accumulate large quantities of lipids that are promising feedstocks for the production of biofuels (Hu et al., 2008
Williams and Laurens, 2010
Day et al., 2012
Quinn and Davis, 2015). The algal species Chlorella vulgaris accumulates triacylglycerides that dominate its cellular composition (>
60% lipid based on dry cell weight) when cultured in medium lacking a nitrogen source (Guarnieri et al., 2011
Ikaran et al., 2015), which is a 'lipid trigger' in an array of microalgae. As such, C. vulgaris represents a model algal species for examination of lipid accumulation mechanisms and a potential deployment organism in industrial algal biofuels applications. C. vulgaris has been extensively characterized biochemically and physiologically (Converti et al., 2009
Liang et al., 2009), and de novo-generated transcriptomic and proteomic datasets have indicated that post-transcriptional and -translational mechanisms likely govern lipid accumulation in response to nitrogen starvation (Guarnieri et al., 2011, 2013). However, the specific mechanisms underlying lipid biosynthesis in response to nitrogen stress remain elusive.