Organelle Dynamics and Lipid Trafficking in Microalgae: From Cellular Mechanisms to Biofuel Engineering

The urgent need for sustainable and renewable energy has driven growing interest in microalgae as a platform for next-generation biofuels. Microalgae combine high lipid content with rapid growth, making them strong candidates for biodiesel production. Commercial-scale output, however, remains limited by suboptimal lipid yields — a bottleneck that is increasingly traced not to single enzymes but to how microalgal cells build, organize, and coordinate the organelles that make, move, and store lipids.This Research Topic focuses on microalgal lipid accumulation through the biogenesis, remodelling, and inter-organelle trafficking dynamics of the membrane-bound compartments involved - including the endoplasmic reticulum, plastids, mitochondria, peroxisomes, and lipid droplets - as well as the membrane contact sites and vesicular routes that connect them. We invite contributions spanning fundamental cell biology, environmental physiology, metabolic engineering, and synthetic biology: from the molecular pathways governing organelle biogenesis, lipid droplet formation, and membrane contact site dynamics, to genetic, synthetic biology, and genome-editing strategies that manipulate this cellular machinery to redirect carbon flux toward lipid storage. Work addressing how nutrient limitation, light, or temperature reprogram organelle dynamics and membrane traffic to drive lipid accumulation is especially welcome.By grounding lipid biosynthesis in the organelle, membrane trafficking, and transport machinery that underlies it, this collection aims to deliver systems-level insight into microalgal lipid storage and new engineering entry points for eco-friendly bioenergy.To maintain a sharp mechanistic focus, studies focused exclusively on cultivation optimization, descriptive omics, or empirical lipid yield increases without mechanistic or physiological insight into organelle organization, membrane dynamics, or lipid trafficking fall outside the central scope of this collection. While the primary focus of this Topic is on eukaryotic microalgae, contributions involving cyanobacteria are also welcome provided they are framed around their distinct prokaryotic membrane organization and lipid transport pathways.We welcome submissions on topics including, but not limited to:• Organelle biogenesis, lipid droplet formation, and membrane trafficking underlying lipid dynamics across the ER, plastids, mitochondria, peroxisomes, and related compartments in microalgae.• Membrane contact sites, lipid transport, and organelle communication coordinating lipid-producing and lipid-storing machinery.• Cell-cycle, growth-state, and stress-response programs that couple carbon allocation and cellular differentiation to lipid accumulation under varying environmental conditions.• Genetic and metabolic engineering of organelle and trafficking pathways to enhance lipid synthesis, transport, and storage.• CRISPR/Cas9 and genome-editing tools targeting organelle biogenesis, membrane contact sites, or trafficking components.• Synthetic biology approaches to redesign organelle-linked biosynthetic and transport routes for biofuel precursors.• Systems biology of organelle dynamics, membrane traffic, and organelle inter-talk during metabolic reprogramming.• Translational and engineering studies connecting organelle dynamics and trafficking mechanisms to scalable biofuel production. Topic editors: Luning Liu, Grace Nkechinyere Ijoma, Ramganesh Selvarajan, Henry Joseph Oduor Ogola Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84325/organelle-dynamics-and-lipid-trafficking-in-microalgae-from-cellular-mechanisms-to-biofuel-engineering