Tomas Morosinotto
RESEARCH PROJECTS
Algae metabolic engineering
for the sustainable production of Bio-commodities
Global demand of biomass
is continuously expanding and new sustainable technologies are needed to avoid overexploitation
of natural resources, reduce environmental footprints and greenhouse-gas
emissions. Algae represent a valuable alternative for the production of several
bio-commodities going from biofuels to
feed, food and chemicals. Thanks to their efficiency in carbon dioxide (CO2)
fixation, algae large scale cultivation can also contribute to the mitigation
of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Despite this potential algae large
scale cultivation still present several limitations and only a few algae-based
products are currently present on the market.
Research in the lab
address these issues using genetic engineering to increase biomass yield of
algae grown in photobioreactors, exploiting mathematical models to identify the
modifications with the most positive impact.
Molecular bases of algae metabolic regulation are also investigated
using multiple –omics approaches, providing seminal information to drive
genetic
The most promising
strains generated are being tested in industrially relevant conditions to
assess their potential.
This work is supported by ERC starting Grant BioLEAP
Photosynthesis
Adaptation Upon Land Colonization
Photosynthesis is a process of a key relevance for the
biosphere, as photosynthetic organisms convert sunlight into chemical energy,
generating molecular oxygen as a secondary product. Several studies on the
structure and organization of photosystems and their subunits are now available
but the comprehension of the regulation of photosynthesis following changing
environmental conditions is still limited. Plants, in fact, are very often
exposed to variable light intensities and evolved several regulatory mechanisms
to modulate the energy transfer efficiency following the metabolic constraints,
maximizing light harvesting when light is limiting and dissipating any energy
in excess when light irradiation is too high. Otherwise, surpluses of absorbed
energy would drive to the formation of harmful oxidative species, leading in
the worst cases to cell death. The regulation of excitation energy transfer to
the Photosystem reaction centres is thus a key process for photosynthetic
organisms survival and productivity.
In this part of the research we use the moss
Physcomitrella patens as a model organism to study regulation of
photosynthesis. As a bryophyte, Physcomitrella patens diverged from seed plants
The work started focusing on the fastest photoprotection mechanism, called Non Photochemical
Quenching (NPQ), which consists in the dissipation of excess excitation energy
as heat. This mechanisms was studies by producing KO mutants and overexpressing
plants exploiting the fact that Physcomitrella patens has the unique ability among
plants to integrate efficiently DNA by homologous recombination.
Recent
main publications:
Gerotto C, Alboresi
A, Meneghesso A, Jokel M, Suorsa M, Aro EM, Morosinotto T*, Flavodiiron
proteins act as safety valve for electrons in Physcomitrella patens. PNAS 2016 113(43):12322-12327
Alboresi A, Le Quiniou C, Yadav SKN, Scholz M, Meneghesso A, Gerotto C, Simionato D, Hippler M, Boekema EJ, Croce R and Morosinotto T*. Conservation of core
complex subunits shaped structure and function of Photosystem I in the
secondary endosymbiont alga Nannochloropsis gaditana. New Phytologist 2017 213(2):714-726.
Alboresi A, Perin G, Vitulo N, Diretto G, Block MA, Jouhet J, Meneghesso A, Valle G, Giuliano G, Maréchal
E, Morosinotto T*. Light
Remodels Lipid Biosynthesis in Nannochloropsis gaditana by Modulating Carbon
Partitioning Between Organelles. Plant Physiol. 2016 171(4):2468-82
Perin G, Bellan
A, Segalla A, Meneghesso A,
Alboresi A and Morosinotto T* Generation of random mutants
to improve light-use efficiency of Nannochloropsis gaditana cultures for
biofuel production Biotec for Biofuels 2015 8:161
Gerotto C, Franchin C, Arrigoni
G, Morosinotto T*. In vivo
Identification of Photosystem II Light Harvesting Complexes Interacting with
PSBS. Plant Physiol. 2015 168(4):1747-61
Science Popularization
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Address:
Dipartimento di Biologia
Complesso Biologico "A. Vallisneri"- Piano
IV Sud
Via Ugo Bassi 58 B
35121 Padova
Italia
Tel. +390498277484
Fax. +390498276300