ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Aquatic Photosynthetic Organisms
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1681466
Mechanism of Nanomaterial-Induced Lipid Droplet Formation in Raphidocelis subcapitata is Mediated by Charge Properties
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, United States
- 2University of California Riverside, Riverside, United States
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Increasing the production of renewable energy will be critical to achieving global sustainability goals in the coming decades. Biofuels derived from microalgae have great potential to contribute to this production. However, cultivating algae with sufficient neutral lipid content, while maintaining high growth rates, is a continual challenge in making algal-derived biofuels a reality. Previous work has shown that exposure to polymer-functionalized carbon dots can increase the lipid content of the microalgae Raphidocelis subcapitata. This study investigates this finding, aiming to determine the mechanisms underlying this effect and if altering nanoparticle surface charge mediates the mechanism of action of the carbon dots used. Carbon dots with both negative and positive surface charges were added to microalgal cultures, and the impacts of this exposure were analyzed using high-content imaging, growth measurements, and chlorophyll content measurements. Results indicate that positively charged carbon dots induce a nano-specific increase in lipid content but also cause decreases in growth. Additionally, the mechanism of action of each nanoparticle was examined by conducting a morphological comparison to treatments with known mechanisms of action. This analysis showed that negatively charged carbon dots cause similar impacts to R. subcapitata as nitrogen deprivation. Nitrogen deprivation is known to increase lipid content in microalgae. The findings of this study suggest that carbon dots may have surface charge dependent effects on the lipid metabolism of R. subcapitata. Future work should consider the use of carbon dots with varied surface charge densities for enhancing algae biofuel production in bioreactors.
Keywords: Microalgae, Lipids, High content imaging (HCI), Nanoparticles, carbon dots
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 26 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 McKeel, Kim, Jeon, McKinnon, Giraldo and Klaper. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rebecca Klaper, rklaper@uwm.edu
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