ALGAE that crave sugar instead of light could save industry a fortune, says
Kirk Apt of Martek Biosciences Corporation of Columbia, Maryland. Companies
usually need to install costly lighting to cultivate the photosynthetic algae
used for fermentation and to produce drugs.
Apt鈥檚 team inserted a gene for a protein called a glucose transporter into
the microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum. 鈥淢ost algae cannot use glucose
because they are designed to use light. This protein allows them to access that
glucose,鈥� says Apt (Science, vol 292, p 2073).
When fed on glucose for eight days in complete darkness, the genetically
modified strain of alga accumulated five times as much biomass as it did when
exposed to sunlight alone.
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