Biological Stoichiometry is an ecological framework connecting the balance of elements to the functioning of organisms. Here, we applied this framework to study the relationships between carbon:nitrogen:phosphorus (C:N:P) ratios and synthesis of industrial high value biochemicals in the highly oleaginous alga Tetradesmus bernardii. We expected an increase in protein content with increasing cellular N content and decreasing C:N stoichiometry, and an increase in lipid content with increasing C:N and C:P stoichiometry. We tested these hypotheses by exposing T. bernardii to N and P limitation at a range of N:P supply ratios in chemostats set at low and high dilution rates. Following expectations, the cellular protein content increased with the N content, and decreased with cellular C:N ratios across all treatments. Carbohydrates and lipids largely followed the relative availability of C and increased under both N and P limitation, with higher C:N and C:P ratios. Specifically, lipid content increased by 100–125% upon N and P limitation, with a shift towards more neutral lipids at the cost of glycolipids and phospholipids. Generally, we observed a re-allocation of cellular C from protein to carbohydrates upon modest N limitation, and towards lipids under P and severe N limitation. Our results demonstrate stoichiometrically predictable patterns of industrially valuable compounds in an oleaginous microalga.

This data was derived from a series of flat panel chemostat experiments with the microalga Tetradesmus bernardii exposed to a range of N:P supply (N:P=1.5, 4.4, 17, and 522) ratios under low (0.2) and high (0.6) dilution rates. Experiments were performed with three replicates. 

This dataset provides data from each replicated treatment.