藻類會在光、滲透壓、缺氮等環境下，大量累積脂肪酸。因此藻類是一個適當的生物質來源。然而為何藻類會在有外界壓力的情況下，會累積脂肪酸的機制仍然不清楚。因此在本實驗，Neodesmus sp. UTEX 2219-4被培養在正常環境、缺氮、sorbitol stress以及高鹽分中6個小時後。四個樣本的mRNA，被分離出來做454 焦磷酸定序。進而去分析有哪些基因或機制促使油脂產生。由結果可以發現，在六小時內，於sorbitol stress以及高鹽分的環境下，脂肪酸合成的基因、其表現量絕大多數都是上升的。此外超氧化物歧化酶(Superoxide dismutase)以及過氧化物酶(Peroxidase)的基因表現量也有上升。這表示說，外在的壓力會誘發細胞內部的氧化壓力。隨之，大量自由基也會產生。為了修補被自由基所破壞的膜，因此大量的脂肪酸被合成而修補之。另外，在光系統中心一、二以及葉綠素的合成等相關基因中，有許多基因的表現量都是下降的。其原因在於OsMyb4-like gene這個轉錄因子(transcription factor)會被外在壓力所抑制，進而導致光合作用等相關的基因表現量降低。
另外，藻類是重要的非模式植物(Non-model plants)，且有許多應用，如:物種多樣性、生質燃料的來源、吸附重金屬或是拿來加工作為保健食品等。隨著次世代定序技術的發展，大量的轉錄組(Transcriptome)以及基因組(Genome)實驗資料因而產生。也因而，為了瞭解藻類的功能以及細胞反應等，整合這些數據、並提供以基因或是代謝途徑等方式來進行檢索的平台是件必要的工作。然而，在現今的資料庫，其基因表現量與生物代謝途徑是分開來呈現的。這使的使用者無法直接去直觀的了解生物其反應機制。因此AlgaePath也因而被建立，且讓使用者能夠有效率地去了解這個物種在多種環境之下，其多樣的生物代謝路徑。這個資料庫網址如下:http://AlgaePath.itps.ncku.edu.tw.

Fatty acid is largely accumulated in the algae under stress conditions such as light, osmotic stress, and nitrogen starvation etc. Hence algae can be a good source for biomass. However, the mechanisms of oil accumulation under stresses in the algae are still unclear. Therefore, 454 pyrosequencing transcriptome data of Neodesmus sp. UTEX 2219-4 were obtained under normal, nitrogen starvation, sorbitol stress and salt stress to identify critical genes involved in oil production in this study. Under sorbitol stress and salt stress, most genes were up-regulated in 6 hours in fatty acid biosynthesis, as well as, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase. It suggests that the oxidative stress was induced by environment stress and more fatty acids are required to repair destroying membrane. However, most genes of photosystem I, II, chlorophyll synthesis and light harvest complex were down-regulated. A transcription factor, OsMyb4-like gene was investigated to regulate the mechanisms in the system.
Additionally, algae are the most important non-model plants and have many research applications, including high species diversity, sources of biofuel, adsorption of heavy metals and, following processing, health supplements. As increasing amounts of next-generation sequencing data for algae genomes and transcriptomes become available, an integrated resource for retrieving gene expression data and metabolic pathway is becoming essential for functional analysis of algae. However, gene expression profiles and biological pathways are displayed separately in current resources, and current databases cannot be searched directly to identify the cellular response mechanisms. Therefore, this work also develops AlgaePath to retrieve efficiently gene expression profiles under various conditions in numerous metabolic pathways. The database is freely available at http://AlgaePath.itps.ncku.edu.tw.

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