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The microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a widely known model system around the world, fully sequenced in its three genomes, easy and inexpensive to grow in the laboratory, and recently recognized by the FDA organism GRAS (generally recognized as safe)(1,2). The strong potential of this photosynthetic single-cell algae has been extensively studied related to the cell division, photosynthesis, cilia biogenesis, carbon-concentrating mechanism, responses to excess light and the dissipation of light energy, metabolism, biosynthetic pathways, and chloroplast gene expression(3). Moreover, thanks to the different gene transformation protocols available in the literature, is possible obtain genetic libraries with different kind of mutant strains (e.g. site-specific and random mutated)(4). For all these reasons, the utilisation of C. reinhardtii cells found over the years many applications. In particular, in the nutraceutics field as natural source of secondary metabolites(5), as well as in medical applications with the extraction of polysaccharides(6,7). Moreover, intriguing results derive from the exploitation of whole C. reinhardtii cells as biorecognition element in the design of biosensors for the detection of specific class of herbicides with harmful effects on environment and human health(8,9). Finally, noteworthy future prospects include these unicellular heterologous systems as a platform for the heterologous expression of proteins for different applications.
1 Scaife, M. A., Nguyen, G. T., Rico, J., Lambert, D., Helliwell, K. E., & Smith, A. G. (2015). Establishing Chlamydomonas reinhardtii as an industrial biotechnology host. The Plant Journal, 82(3), 532-546.
2 https://www.fda.gov/media/128921/download
3 Griesbeck, C., Kobl, I., & Heitzer, M. (2006). Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Molecular biotechnology, 34(2), 213-223.
4 Johanningmeier, U., & Heiss, S. (1993). Construction of a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant with an intronless psbA gene. Plant molecular biology, 22(1), 91-99.
5 Rea, G., Antonacci, A., Lambreva, M., Pastorelli, S., Tibuzzi, A., Ferrari, S., ... & Giardi, M. T. (2011). Integrated plant biotechnologies applied to safer and healthier food production: The Nutra-Snack manufacturing chain. Trends in food science & technology, 22(7), 353-366.
6 Kamble, P., Cheriyamundath, S., Lopus, M., & Sirisha, V. L. (2018). Chemical characteristics, antioxidant and anticancer potential of sulfated polysaccharides from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Journal of Applied Phycology, 30(3), 1641-1653.
7 Masi, A., Leonelli, F., Scognamiglio, V., Gasperuzzo, G., Antonacci, A., & Terzidis, M. A. (2023). Chlamydomonas reinhardtii: A Factory of Nutraceutical and Food Supplements for Human Health. Molecules, 28(3), 1185.
8 Lambreva, M. D., Giardi, M. T., Rambaldi, I., Antonacci, A., Pastorelli, S., Bertalan, I., ... & Rea, G. (2013). A powerful molecular engineering tool provided efficient Chlamydomonas mutants as bio-sensing elements for herbicides detection. PLoS One, 8(4), e61851.
9 Antonacci, A., Celso, F. L., Barone, G., Calandra, P., Grunenberg, J., Moccia, M., ... & Scognamiglio, V. (2020). Novel atrazine-binding biomimetics inspired to the D1 protein from the photosystem II of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules, 163, 817-823.
