Enhancement of saline aquaculture wastewater treatment and bioresource production by ARTP-mutagenized Chlorella: Insights from integrated physiological and multi-omics analyses

The salinity of aquaculture wastewater varies considerably across farming systems, limiting the applicability of conventional Chlorella strains. To improve salt tolerance and broaden application potential, atmospheric and room temperature plasma (ARTP) mutagenesis was employed. Among the five mutant strains evaluated, AMC-2 exhibited the most notable improvements over the wild-type, with enhanced growth, photosynthesis, nutrient removal, and bioresource accumulation.Compared to the wild-type strain, transcriptomic analyses of AMC-2 revealed coordinated upregulation of key genes (e.g., LHCB1, rbcS, ALDO, GOT2, Nrt, and NR) .