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Enhancing the production of a marine diatom (Skeletonema costatum) with low-frequency ultrasonic irradiation

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Abstract

This study evaluated the growth stimulatory effect of low-frequency ultrasound on an ecologically and economically important marine diatom, Skeletonema costatum. To investigate the effect of repeated ultrasonication and the optimum duration of ultrasonication, S. costatum cells were exposed to low-frequency ultrasound (40 kHz) for 0, 2, 30 or 90 s under two sonication conditions: a one-time sonication treatment or a 24-h interval treatment. The cell density and cellular carbohydrate content increased in the ultrasonicated cultures. Similarly, the photosynthetic efficiency, particularly in the exponential growth phase, was enhanced in ultrasonicated cultures, which might account for the enhanced cell growth. At the end of the experiment, compared with the corresponding one-time treatment groups, the cell density in the 30-s sonicated culture and the cellular carbohydrate concentration in the 2-s sonicated culture of the 24-h interval treatment group were increased by 34 ± 4% and 28 ± 3%, respectively. This indicates that, under the same ultrasonic treatment conditions, a higher cellular carbohydrate content can be achieved by repeating the ultrasonication. This study also revealed that, compared with control, the silica/nitrate ratio and silica/phosphate ratio required to produce the same number of S. costatum cells were lower in the sonicated cultures, particularly in the one-time sonicated cultures. This finding indicates that ultrasonic irradiation results in the light silicification of S. costatum cells. This study provides valuable information on the diatom response to low-frequency ultrasonic irradiation and is an important benchmark study for future biotechnological applications of the mass production of S. costatum and other microalgae.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following funding agencies for supporting this research: the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFA0601302), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M632580) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41876146, 41476116).

Funding

This work was funded by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFA0601302), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M632580) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41876146, 41476116).

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Author notes

  1. Rediat Abate and Shuang Song contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Life Sciences and State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Rediat Abate, Shuang Song, Vishal Patil, Changping Chen, Junrong Liang, Lin Sun, Xuesong Li & Yahui Gao

  2. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystem, College of Environment & Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China

    Rediat Abate, Changping Chen, Junrong Liang, Bangqin Huang & Yahui Gao

  3. College of Natural Science, Arba Minch University, PO Box 21, Arba Minch, Ethiopia

    Rediat Abate

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  1. Rediat Abate
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Contributions

Y.G., R.A. and B.H. conceived the project; V.P, L.S. and X.L. prepared samples and maintained the laboratory facilities; R.A. and S.S performed the experiment and data analysis; C.C. and J.L. contributed to the experimental design; and R.A., B.H. and Y.G. wrote and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yahui Gao.

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Supplementary figure

The effect of low-frequency ultrasonic irradiation on the extracellular carbohydrate concentration of S. costatum cell cultures sonicated for 0 (control), 2, 30 and 90 s in the one-time (a) and 24-h interval treatments (b). The data points represent triplicate analyses (±SE, n = 3) (DOCX 132 kb)

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Abate, R., Song, S., Patil, V. et al. Enhancing the production of a marine diatom (Skeletonema costatum) with low-frequency ultrasonic irradiation. J Appl Phycol 32, 3711–3722 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-020-02270-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-020-02270-6

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