Abstract
Open rooftop incubators may provide a cost-effective way for producing microalgal biomass for biodiesel production without requiring large land areas. While cultivating a Chlorella vulgaris strain with high oil content in a rooftop incubator, we identified an invading thermo-resistant green alga, which replaced the original culture. The isolated strain HTA1-65 had the typical Chlorella morphology with spherical cells and a cup-shaped parietal chloroplast. The protoplast contained a single pyrenoid traversed by a double-layered thylakoid and enveloped by a single starch sheath. The oil content of this strain was only 21.5 %, one third of the original strain. This strain grew at 42 °C, with an optimum of 33 °C. Heat treatment of 45 °C for 3 h per day did not decrease its growth rate, suggesting that it has a high potential in biotechnological applications. Phylogenetic analyses revealed that HTA1-65 belongs to the genus Chlorella, but a specific relationship to any species was not indicated by nuclear and chloroplast small subunit rRNA genes. However, based on at least one compensating base change (CBC) and a few hemi-CBCs in the ITS2 secondary structure of closely related species, we describe strain HTA1-65 as a novel, thermo-tolerant Chlorella species, C. thermophila.
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This work was supported by Hainan Provincial Science and Technology Key Program (GCZX2013001, ZDZX2013023), and International Science and Technology Cooperation Program of China (2014DFA30680), and Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (309051).
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Handling editor: Stuart Anthony Halse
Shuai Ma and Bingyin Han have contributed equally on this manuscript.
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Ma, S., Han, B., Huss, V.A.R. et al. Chlorella thermophila (Trebouxiophyceae, Chlorophyta), a novel thermo-tolerant Chlorella species isolated from an occupied rooftop incubator. Hydrobiologia 760, 81–89 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2304-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2304-3