Table 1.

Relevant examples of recent random mutagenesis reports aiming at different targets, indicating the respective mutagenesis method used, species, screening strategy and obtained improvement. An extended version of this table can be found in the Supplementary Materials (Table S1).

Species	Method	Target	Screening	Improvement	References
Chemical mutagenesis
Chlorella sp.	EMS 100 mM, 30 min	Lipid content	FACS using BODIPY 505/515 staining	1.4-fold increased lipid content	[109]
Chlorella sp.	EMS 100 mM, 60 min	Thermotolerance	Incubation at 40 °C; size	Increase of 1.8-fold at 25 °C and 6.7-fold at 40 °C for growth rate	[104]
Chlorella sp.	NTG 5 μg mL−1 for 60 min	Alkali tolerance	pH 11.5; size	CO2 utilization efficiency	[106]
Chlorella vulgaris	EMS 300 mM, 60 min	Chlorophyll deficiency	Color and norflurazon	Up to 99% lower chlorophyll and 60% higher protein content	[11]
Coelastrum sp.	EMS 400 mM, 60 min	Carotenoid content	Glufosinate 25 μM and size	2-fold higher astaxanthin content	[110]
Desmodesmus sp.	EMS 600–800 mM, 30–60 min	Lipid content	Nile red fluorescence	Increased lipid productivity of up to 74%	[98]
Nannochloropsis gaditana	EMS 70 mM, 60 min	Chlorophyll deficiency	In vivo fluorescence imaging	Photosynthetic activity and biomass productivity	[111]
Physical mutagenesis
Chlamydomonas reinhardtii	UV, 30 min	Sterols	On 0.1–1.0 mM terbinafine	50% overproduction of sterols and squalene, higher resistance to oxidative stress	[112]
Chlorella sp.	Gamma ray, 800 Gy	Lipid content	Nile red fluorescence	Increased lipid content and productivity	[113]
Phaeodactylum tricornutum	Heavy-ion irradiation	Carotenoid content	FACS (chlorophyll autofluorescence)	25% higher fucoxanthin content	[88]
Tetradesmus (Scenedesmus) obliquus	UV 254 nm (40,000 µJ cm−1)	Starchless mutants	Iodine vapor staining to screen for starch	41% increased total fatty acid productivity	[114]
Hybrid mutagenesis
Chlorella vulgaris	UV 254 nm (0.5–10 min) + EMS 25 mM 60 min	Lipid content	Growth and Nilered staining;	Lipid content and biomass were, respectively, 67% and 35% higher than those of the wildtype	[115]