A novel characteristic of a phytoplankton as a potential source of straight-chain alkanes

Naomi Harada,Song Chihong,Fumihiro Itoh,Miyako Sato,Jonaotaro Onodera,Yuu Hirose,Kazuyoshi Murata,Hirofumi Kurita

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-93204-w

Abstract

Biosynthesis of hydrocarbons is a promising approach for the production of alternative sources of energy because of the emerging need to reduce global consumption of fossil fuels. However, the suitability of biogenic hydrocarbons as fuels is limited because their range of the number of carbon atoms is small, and/or they contain unsaturated carbon bonds. Here, we report that a marine phytoplankton, Dicrateria rotunda, collected from the western Arctic Ocean, can synthesize a series of saturated hydrocarbons (n-alkanes) from C10H22 to C38H78, which are categorized as petrol (C10–C15), diesel oils (C16–C20), and fuel oils (C21–C38). The observation that these n-alkanes were also produced by ten other cultivated strains of Dicrateria collected from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans suggests that this capability is a common characteristic of Dicrateria. We also identified that the total contents of the n-alkanes in the Arctic D. rotunda strain increased under dark and nitrogen-deficient conditions. The unique characteristic of D. rotunda could contribute to the development of a new approach for the biosynthesis of n-alkanes.

Highlights

Biosynthesis of hydrocarbons is a promising approach for the production of alternative sources of energy because of the emerging need to reduce global consumption of fossil fuels
The suggested mechanism is controversial because the responsible microorganisms have not been identified, and a series of chemical reactions involving microorganisms that would lead to the formation of a variety of linear alkanes with both even and odd numbers of carbons is still unknown, new pathways for the biosynthesis of alkanes, mainly heptadecane and pentadecane, have been reported in c yanobacteria[3]
We report that a marine phytoplankton, Dicrateria rotunda (D. rotunda) strain ARC1, collected from the western Arctic Ocean, has the novel capability to synthesize a series of linear, saturated hydrocarbons

Summary

Introduction

Biosynthesis of hydrocarbons is a promising approach for the production of alternative sources of energy because of the emerging need to reduce global consumption of fossil fuels. We report that a marine phytoplankton, Dicrateria rotunda (D. rotunda) strain ARC1, collected from the western Arctic Ocean, has the novel capability to synthesize a series of linear, saturated hydrocarbons

Results

Conclusion