Research Group on Systems Biology and Biotechnology in Microalgae



Human world population is increasing drastically generating unprecedented needs for energy and food. The massive exploitation of fossil fuels to satisfy this energy demand is producing a high accumulation of CO2 in the atmosphere and the subsequent climate change. This is affecting crop yield and reducing land area suitable for agriculture, ultimately, increasing malnutrition and its associated human diseases. In the current climate emergency scenario with energy and food shortage, microalgae cultivation represents an opportunity as promising sources of sustainable biofuels, agricultural biostimulants, animal feed and human nutrients contributing to the removal of the accumulating CO2. Nonetheless, the molecular mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis of compounds of biotechnological interest remain mostly uncharacterized in microalgae, hindering development of their full potential as cell-factories that could contribute substantially to solve these challenges. In our group we follow molecular systems biology multidisciplinary approaches combining omics technologies with High Performance Computing and mathematical methods to develop predictive models characterizing the molecular mechanisms controlling the functioning and physiology of microalgae to promote their biotechnological applications. We follow an evolutionary methodology in the characterization of these mechanisms extending our studies to the green lineage or viridiplantae focusing specifically in the terrestralization event during plant evolution. Our favourite model organisms are Ostreococcus tauri, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, Klebsormidium nitens, Marchantia polymorpha and Arabidopsis thaliana. We also study the microalgae of industrial interest Haematococcus lacustris and Chromocloris zofingiensis and crops such as wheat or Triticum aestivium and tomato or Solanum lycopersicum.
Our group in part of the Institute for Plant Biochemistry and Photosynthesis (IBVF) in Seville (Spain) a join center between the University of Seville and Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).


Our photochemostat installations



Ostreococcus tauri

Klebsormidium nitens

Chromochloris zofingiensis



Marchantia polymorpha

Arabidopsis thaliana

Solanum lycopersicum




Our research group is multidisciplinary constituted by molecular biologists, biochemists, computer and data scientists. We are NOT organised into a pyramidal or hierarchical structure. We are just at different stages in our research careers and lifes with different responsabilities, duties and roles within our group. Our goal is to produce a nurturing and stimulating environment in our group in which we all have fun, learn, discover and grow as scientists and people. We all are strongly committed to open, fair and ethical science.

Principal Investigators:



Mercedes García-González
Biologist
Associate Professor

Francisco J. Romero-Campero
Computer and Data Scientist
Associate Professor

Inmaculada Couso
Molecular Biologist
Tenure Track Researcher


Lab Technicians and Managers:



M. Elena García-Gómez
Biologist
Lab Technician/Manager


PhD Students:



Ana B. Romero-Losada
Biochemist / Computer and Data Scientist
Substitute Teaching Tutor

Christina Arvanitidou
Biologist / Computer and Data Scientist
PhD Student Funded by
the Andalusian Goverment

Emma Serrano-Pérez
Biochemist / Computer and Data Scientist
Master in Omics Data Analysis and Systems Biology
PhD Student Funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation

Marcos Ramos-González
Biochemist / Computer and Data Scientist
Master in Omics Data Analysis and Systems Biology
PhD Student FPU Funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation

Rodrigo Bedera
Biochemist / Computer and Data Scientist
Master in Omics Data Analysis and Systems Biology
PhD Student FPU Funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation


Master Students:


Andrea García-Alcaide
Biotechnologist
Master in Omics Data Analysis and Systems Biology

Undergraduate Students:




Alberto Barrero
Biochemist

Honorary Professor:



Miguel García Guerrero
Biologist

Some pictures of our team building days out:




September 2022 - XVI Meeting of Plant Molecular Biology (Seville)


July 2022 - Beach in Chiclana (Cádiz)


July 2022 - Adventure Park Hanging in the Woods in Roche (Cádiz)


December 2021 - Christmas Lunch in Seville


Former Members:



María Morales-Pineda
Biochemist
Lab Technician

Nuria Membrives
Biochemist
Lab Technician

Jacob González-Isa
Biochemist


Below you can find a list of the papers published by members of our group in the last years:

2024


2023


2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017



One of the main goals of our group is the development of software tools acting as enabling technologies to promote systems biology studies in microalgae biotechnology in particular and in the green lineage in general. Below you can find a list of the software tools developed in our group:

















Below you can find a list of the recent research projects developed or in progress in our group. Projects are sorted based on their final year:

2026

Investigating INosITol polyphosphates InterAcTome in the context of CO2 capturing and carbon paRtitioning (INITIATOR)

  • Summary: Mitigation of CO2 is one of the most important problems that governments are facing in the last decade. In fact, European Union is proposing a 40% reduction of its emissions by the end of 2030 in the latest Climate and Energy framework and it pretends to be climate-neutral by 2050 (https://ec.europa.eu/clima/policies/strategies). In this sense, biological CO2 capturing, photosynthesis and its molecular regulation is an ancient process that needs to be revisited in order to help in the reduction of this greenhouse gas. In green microalgae, fixed CO2 is normally redirected to two different fates, cell growth (proteins) and carbon storage, mainly in the form of lipids and carbohydrates (starch) (Melis, 2013). In this sense, the use of these microorganisms for the production of biofuels is a good alternative to land crops because it lacks the main ethical implications on food/feed market and land use (Zhu et al., 2022). Thus, the understanding of the intracellular regulation of CO2 capturing and partitioning in green cells is fundamental in order to optimize their use. The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has been a perfect model for these kinds of studies. Actually, it has been used to describe the interaction between TOR kinase and the pyro-phosphorylated derivates of inositol polyphosphates (PP-InsPs) that controls carbon uptake and its final destination within these photosynthetic cells (Couso et al., 2016). Until that time, the applicability of inositol polyphosphates (InsPs) in green organisms was limited to biofortification strategies in crop genetic engineering for enhanced mineral density in traits, as these molecules are potent chelating agents that impact de bioavailability of iron and zinc (Raboy, 2020; Wang et al., 2022). Based on our previous results, this project is designed under the prospective view of understanding and manipulating InsPs biosynthesis in microalgae in order to increase the applicability of these green cells in the biofuels and other high added value compounds production towards the global strategy of carbon reduction.
  • Funding Agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation
  • Principal Investigators: Inmaculada Couso-Liañez
  • Funding: 141.000,00€
  • Dates: 12/2026

2025

Evolution of Diurnal and Seasonal Rhythmic Networks in Chlorophyta, Charophyta and Bryophyta (ELECTRA), PID2021-1239840B-I00

  • Summary: The cultivation of photophrophic organisms represents an opportunity in the current climate emergency situation contributing to the removal of part of the accumulating CO2 in the atmosphere and its transformation into plant biomass. Since the last century the use of microalgae has been proposed for this purpose, due to the biotechnological characteristics of its cultivation. However, few initiatives have reached industrial scale. Currently only few microalgae species are massively cultivated (Chlorella, Spirulina, Dunaliella and Haematococcus) for products with very high added value (nutritional supplements, b-carotene, astaxanthin and more recently biostimulants for plant growth). Among the limitations detected for the widespread implementation of these technologies is the low yield of microalgae outdoors cultivation due to fluctuations in light and temperature and contamination by predators. Initiatives are being promoted to cultivate microalgae indoors, with artificial light, to reduce the aforementioned inconveniences. This project aims to analyse the effects of light regimes on microalgae cultures, studying in depth the transcription factors, identified in the previous project (MINOTAUR), which control the expression of key genes in the biosynthetic pathways of compounds of biotechnological interest (carotenoids, starch, phytohormones) in response to daily and seasonal light-dark cycles. For this study, the marine microalgae Ostrococcus tauri has been selected for its genomic and proteomic simplicity and its interesting biochemical composition. Our research will be also extended to other photosynthetic organisms considered the next links in the process of conquering dry land by plants, namely Klebsormidium nitens and Marchantia polymorpha. The main goal of our project consist in determining the level of conservation of the diurnal and seasonal rhythmic mechanisms controlling the biosynthesis of compounds of biotechnological interest. This will be achieved following a multidisciplinary approach combining cultivation of these photosynthetic organisms under controlled conditions with omic technologies , integrative multivariate analysis of massive data and network theory. Ultimately, our project seeks to construct the transcriptional network controlling diurnal and seasonal rhythms and characterize its evolution in the green lineage history. The midterm application of our results will represent an important progress in microalgae biotechnology, plant evolutionary biology and environmental sustainability.
  • Funding Agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation
  • Principal Investigators: Francisco J. Romero-Campero, Mercedes García-González
  • Funding: 96.800,00€
  • Dates: 01/2023 - 12/2025

2024

Identification of REgulatorS involved in the accumulation of bIodiesel precursor fatty acids induced by Light and nItrogEN availability in miCroalgaE (RESILIENCE), TED2021-129651B-I00

  • Summary: The cultivation of photophrophic organisms represents an opportunity in the current climate emergency, contributing to the removal of a fraction of the CO2 that is accumulating in the atmosphere by transforming it into plant biomass. Since the last century, microalgae cultivation, due to their biotechnological advantages, have been proposed as a sustainable solution to this problem. Nonetheless, few initiatives have reached industrial scale. The potential of some microalgae for biofuel photoproduction is widely recognized, due to their fast growth rate and ability to accumulate high levels of triacylglycerols with low requirements for land and high quality water. In spite of the progress that have been achieved, microalgae application into biofuel production has not reached the expected development. The main underlying limitations preventing microalgae full development as cell factories include those related to the selection and improvement of suitable microalgae strains. Moreover, the complexity of the biological systems underlying microalgae physiology makes mandatory the application of omics analysis based on mathematical/computational techniques such as those successfully applied in BigData projects. The adequacy and preeminence of the microalgae Raphidocelis subcapitata for the generation of biodiesel precursor fatty acids over other oleaginous microalgae has recently been demonstrated by our group. Under moderate nitrogen limitation R. subcapitata increases fatty acid content and modifies their profile, altering the relationship between unsaturated and saturated fatty acids. This constitutes an ideal lipid profile for the production of biodiesel. R. subcapitata potential in bioremediation has also been demonstrated in several applications. Specifically, our group has successfully used the nutrients contained in olive processing waste residues as a growth media for this microalgae. In this way, contributing to the decontamination of these discharges. The biomass thus obtained has been successfully tested as a raw material for biogas production. Multi-omics analysis based on mathematical/computational techniques has also been recently applied by our research group for the identification of transcription factors controlling the biosynthesis of the highly valuable carotenoid astaxanthin in the microalgae of industrial interest Haematococcus. All this supports the use of R. subcapitata as an excellent natural biological resource and the application of multi-omics techniques in order to contribute to a circular economy. In order to contribute to the full development of R. subcapitata as a cell factory, in this project, we aim at the identification of the transcriptional regulators controlling fatty acid metabolic pathways involved in the redistribution of carbon fixed by photosynthesis. The identified transcription factors and their target DNA sequecnes would constitute candidates for genetic system engineering for the optimazition of R. subcapitata as a biodiesel precursor fatty acids cell factory. This would contribute to improve the production of suitable fatty acids for the generation of carbon-neutral biofuels progressing towards the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, mainly CO2. This is a multidisciplinary project, where experiences in, molecular biology and microalgae biotechnology are combined with those of bioinformatics, which guarantee an effective symbiosis to achieve the proposed objetives.
  • Funding Agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation
  • Principal Investigators: Mercedes García-González, Francisco J. Romero-Campero
  • Funding: 126.500,00€
  • Dates: 01/2023 - 12/2024

Estudio del impacto de los Inositoles polifosfato en la regulación Redox y Estrategias para la Mitigación del Carbono en Algas Verdes - PARAGON.

  • Summary:
  • Funding Agency: Ministry of Science and Innovation
  • Principal Investigators: Inmaculada Couso
  • Funding:
  • Dates: 01/2023 - 12/2024

2023


Estudio de la eficiencia de bioestimulantes innovadores derivados de microalgas para combatir los efectos adversos del cambio climático en tomate y trigo - Microclimatt. O00000226E2000044796

  • Summary: The aim of this project is to highlight the essential role of agricultural biostimulants, in particular those made from microalgae biomass. It seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of these innovative solutions derived from microalgae to efficiently fight the effects of climate change on crops such as tomatoe and wheat. MicroClimatt will evaluate the physiological and transcriptomic effects induced by treatment with novel microalgae biostimulants on these crops, including conditions that are directly or indirectly caused by climate change, such as water stress or poor fertilisation rates. This project also aims to quantify the incorporation of carbon in the plant biomass of crops linked to increased productivity, to evaluate the increase of organic carbon incorporation in the soil sink and to study the improvement of soil fertility by treatment of crops with microalgae derivatives, as well as the improvement of soil quality, functionality and sustainability.
  • Funding Agency: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
  • Principal Investigators: Francisco J. Romero-Campero, Mercedes García-González
  • Funding: 96.497,71€
  • Dates: 03/2021 - 03/2023