Abstract—Algal biofuels may be a viable alternative to fossil fuels; however, this technology must overcome a number of hurdles before it can be considered for use in the market and be broadly deployed. One of the major hurdles is the low fuel yields per unit of biomass. In this study, we aim to overcome this challenge by identifying several genes, responsible for increased lipid production, from numerous sources that can potentially increase the lipid synthesis in the autotrophic alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Using in-silico comparative genomics, we have shortlisted a total of 17 genes which, if incorporated into the genome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and overexpressed, could increase lipid production.

Index Terms—Algal biofuels, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, comparative genomics, lipid production.

The authors are with Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, India (e-mail: gautham.sr@gmail.com).

Cite: Gautham Subramaniam Ramakrishnan, Manali Mukund Kamath, and Vidya Niranjan, "Increasing Microbial Biofuel Production by In-silico Comparative Genomic Studies," International Journal of Bioscience, Biochemistry and Bioinformatics vol. 4, no. 5, pp. 386-390, 2014.