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Enhanced biomass and lipid production by co-cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris with Mesorhizobium sangaii under nitrogen limitation

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Abstract

Microalgal lipids have been considered as one of the most promising feedstocks for biodiesel production. In order to solve the contradiction of algae growth and lipid accumulation, Chlorella vulgaris was co-cultured with Mesorhizobium sangaii under nitrogen deficiency conditions. The biomass and lipid production of C. vulgaris–bacteria co-culture with initial ratio of algae/bacteria = 40:1 were significantly improved compared with the pure algae culture. The maximum biomass, lipid content and productivity of algae in the co-cultures at 40:1 ratio were 1.89 mg L−1, 51.2%, and 96.77 mg L−1 day−1, respectively, which were 1.5, 2.2, and 3.3 times higher than those of the pure algae culture. Furthermore, the proportion of unsaturated fatty acids and C18:1 fatty acid of the consortium system was also significantly increased. Our study clearly suggests that co-cultivation of algae–bacteria can effectively contribute to the quality and quantity of microalgal bio-oil and shows promising applications for production of algal biomass and biodiesel.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National key Research and Development Plan of China (2016YFE0106700), the Key Research Project of Shandong Province (No. 2017GGX40114), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (17CX05013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing and Center for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, China University of Petroleum (East China), 266580, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China

    Zhijin Wei, Haonan Wang, Xiao Li, Qianqian Zhao, Yonghao Yin, Lijun Xi & Baosheng Ge

  2. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 264003, Yantai, People’s Republic of China

    Song Qin

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  1. Zhijin Wei
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  2. Haonan Wang
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  5. Yonghao Yin
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  6. Lijun Xi
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  7. Baosheng Ge
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  8. Song Qin
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Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: BG, LX, and ZW. Performed the experiments: ZW, HW, XL, HL, QZ, and YY. Analyzed the data: BG, ZW, and LX. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BG and ZW. Wrote the paper: BG, ZW, and SQ.

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Correspondence to Baosheng Ge.

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Wei, Z., Wang, H., Li, X. et al. Enhanced biomass and lipid production by co-cultivation of Chlorella vulgaris with Mesorhizobium sangaii under nitrogen limitation. J Appl Phycol 32, 233–242 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-019-01924-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-019-01924-4

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