Ph.D. Student
Marine Biotechnology Department
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Director of Studies: Dr. Sergio Balzano
External Supervisor: Prof. Stefan Schouten
Program: Open University, XXI cycle
Research interest
Microalgae have attracted global attention because of their high lipid production rate, a feature that is strictly necessary for the production of biotechnologically relevant products. In addition to polyunsaturated fatty acids that are currently considered as potential candidates for the production of sustainable biofuel, the Eustigmatophyceae Nannochloropsis spp. produce also long chain hydroxy fatty acids (LCHFAs) with an alkyl chain of 28-32 carbon and an in-chain point of hydroxylation. This class of hydroxylated fatty acids has been previously shown to act as lubricants when added at low concentration to reference fuel. With respect to the sustainable production of materials, Nannochloropsis spp. produce other classes of compounds structurally related to LCHFAs: the long chain alkyl diols (LCDs) and the long chain alkenols (LCAs). In both LCDs and LCAs the carboxylic group of LCHFAs is replaced with an alcohol group, while LCAs differ from LCDs for the presence of an intermediate double bond instead of the secondary alcohol group. The presence of the functionalization points makes them sustainable alternative for the synthesis of biomaterials. Because of the potential biotechnological applications of LCHFAs, LCDs and LCAs, the Ph.D. project has 3 main objectives: 1) confirming the role of the two predicted enzymes, PKS and FAE, involved in the biosynthetic pathway, 2) finding the enzymes that catalyse the reduction of LCHFAs to LCDs 3) overexpressing the PKS and FAE in order to increase LCHFAs concentration. The final goal is to compare the LCHFAs production rate between engineered organism and Nannochloropsis spp.
Selected Publications
Moros Maria, Francesca Di Maria, Principia Dardano, Giuseppina Tommasini, Hiram Castillo-Michel, Alessandro Kovtun, Mattia Zangoli, Martina Blasio, Luca De Stefano, Angela Tino, Giovanna Barbarella, and Claudia Tortiglione. 2020. “In Vivo Bioengineering of Fluorescent Conductive Protein-Dye Microfibers.” SSRN Electronic Journal.
Smerilli Arianna, Sergio Balzano, Maira Maselli, Martina Blasio, Ida Orefice, Christian Galasso, Clementina Sansone, and Christophe Brunet. 2019. “Antioxidant and Photoprotection Networking in the Coastal Diatom Skeletonema Marinoi.” Antioxidants 8(6):154.
Moros Maria, Anna Lewinska, Giada Onorato, Maria Rosa Antognazza, Francesca Di Maria, Martina Blasio, Guglielmo Lanzani, Angela Tino, Maciej Wnuk, and Claudia Tortiglione. 2018. “Light-Triggered Modulation of Cell Antioxidant Defense by Polymer Semiconducting Nanoparticles in a Model Organism.” MRS Communications 8(03):918–25.
Iachetta Roberta, Alfredo Ambrosone, Alexander Klimovich, Jörg Wittlieb, Giada Onorato, Alessia Candeo, Cosimo D’Andrea, Daniela Intartaglia, Nunzia Scotti, Martina Blasio, Angela Tino, Andrea Bassi, and Claudia Tortiglione. 2018. “Real Time Dynamics of β-Catenin Expression during Hydra Development, Regeneration and Wnt Signalling Activation.” International Journal of Developmental Biology 62(4–5):311–18
