Fabrication of Phaeodactylum tricornutum extract-loaded gelatin nanofibrous mats exhibiting antimicrobial activity.

Microalgae have recently been recognized as a valuable resource for various applications. Phaeodactylum tricornutum is a diatom that lives in marine water and has an unusually high content of lipids. In this study, we added P. tricornutum into a gelatin dope solution to examine the effect of this diatom using electrospinning. The addition of P. tricornutum extracts increased the conductivity of the dope solution but had little effect on the viscosity. Due to the increased conductivity, the fiber diameter was reduced compared with the neat gelatin nanofiber. The loading of P. tricornutum extracts was confirmed using fluorescence microscopy, and the incorporation of lipids was detected through gas chromatography. The P. tricornutum-loaded nanofiber mat exhibited anti-microbial activity against Escherichia coli and multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The cell viability test showed that the P. tricornutum-loaded nanofiber has no cytotoxicity. We expect that this antimicrobial P. tricornutum-loaded gelatin nanofiber mat can be applied as a wound dressing.

Stable integration and functional expression of flounder growth hormone gene in transformed microalga, Chlorella ellipsoidea.

Chlorella is an attractive organism for complex recombinant protein production because of its eukaryotic characteristics and low cost for large-scale culture. Protoplasts of C. ellipsoidea were transformed with a vector containing the flounder growth hormone gene (fGH) under the control of the cauliflower mosaic virus 35S promoter, and the phleomycin resistance Sh ble gene under the control of the Chlamydomonas RBCS2 gene promoter. The presence of introduced DNA was first determined by PCR amplification of both the fGH and Sh ble genes from genomic DNA isolated from transformants and fGH protein expression was detected by immunoblot analysis. Over 400 microg of fGH protein expression per one liter culture containing 1 x 10(8) cells/ml was estimated by ELISA. Stable integration of introduced DNA was confirmed by Southern blot analysis of genomic DNA digested with restriction enzymes. The introduced DNA and fGH expression were detected after seven successive transfers in media devoid of phleomycin, but stably remained in the presence of the antibiotic. Flounder fry fed on the transformed Chlorella revealed a 25% growth increase after 30 days of feeding.