Nannochloropsis oceanicais one of six species of the genus Nannochloropsis which has drawn attention as a potential feedstock for the production of biofuels, nutraceuticals, and industrial chemicals due to its high productivity and oil content. Recent progress in transformation and targeted gene replacement by homologous recombination in N. oceanica promise rapid progress in the elucidation of pathways of storage compound synthesis and their regulation. Given also its small genome, genetic engineering and ultimately synthetic biology approaches towards improving its productivity and versatility have come within reach. A team of MSU researchers and external collaborators coordinated by the laboratory of Christoph Benning has released a draft genome sequence of the N. oceanica strain CCMP1779.

Tools:

• Genome Browse at JGI

Resources:

• For genome sequence and gene prediction, please see: [Series GSE36959]
• Gbrowse and Blast Explanations [CCMP1779_GbrowseExplanations.pdf]
• Transformation Protocol [PDF]
• Genome Assembly: [download]
• Protein Sequence: [download]
• GFF File: [download]
• Selected References for Nannochloropsis Resources
   

  Vieler, Wu, Tsai et al.	CCMP1779 genomic sequence, annotation, transformation
  Radakovits, Jinkerson, Fuerstenberg et al., Nature Communications 2012	N. gaditana CCMP 526 genomic sequence, annotation and transformation
  Pan, Qin, Dai et al., Journal of Phycology 2011	N. oceanica draft genome
  Kilian, Benemann, Niyogi et al., PNAS 2011	N. oceanica nuclear transformation and targeted gene replacement by homologous recombination

Participating Laboratories

Christoph Benning	Eric L. Hegg	Ning Jiang
Min-Hao Kuo	Yan Lu	Krishna K. Niyogi
John Ohlrogge	Katherine W. Osteryoung	Yair Shachar-Hill
Barbara B. Sears	Shin-Han Shiu	Yanni Sun
Hideki Takahashi	Mark Yandell

Funding for this project was provided by a Strategic Partnership Grant from the Michigan State University Foundation and Michigan State University AgBioResearch.