Chinese researchers double microalga yields using blue lights

In China, a research team the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), has discovered a genetic sensor of blue light that regulates oil synthesis in an industrial microalga, and explored this discovery to double the microalgal productivity of oils. 

They proposed a new technology called Blue-Light Induced Oil synthesis (BLIO), which has major implications in microalgae-based conversion of carbon dioxide to biofuels. 

Their findings were published on March 29 in Nature Communications.