Lipid Content Modulation of Apicomplexan Cousin Chromera velia by Nitrogen Addition 
Veronika Kyselová (1, 2), Aleš Tomčala (2), Miroslav Oborník (1,2,3)
1. University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Science, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
2. Biology Centre ASCR, v.v.i., Institute of Parasitology, Laboratory of Evolutionary Protistology, Branišovská 31, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
3. Institute of Microbiology ASCR, v.v.i., Opatovický mlýn, 379 81 Třeboň, Czech Republic
 
Apicomplexans parasites represented by genus Plasmodium causes severe health and economic losses. Recently found alveolate Chromera velia was proved as the closest known photosynthetic relative of apicomplexan parasites thus becoming an excellent model for study of the evolution of the parasitism. Intensive studies on genomics, physiology, and metabolomics of the alga revealed surprisingly high ability of C. velia to produce fatty acids and to accumulate storage lipids. Furthermore changing the concentration of anorganic nitrogen in medium modulate amount of biomass, amount of extract lipids and even proportion of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. 
This study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (P506/12/1522) and the University of South Bohemia Grant Agency GAJU 038/2014/P.