Abstract
Most methods that promote carbohydrate production negatively affect cell growth and microalgal biomass production. This study explores, in a two-stage cultivation strategy, in Chlamydomonas debaryana the optimization of certain culture conditions for high carbohydrate production without loss of biomass. In the first stage, the interaction between sodium bicarbonate supplementation, aeration, and different growth periods was optimized using the response surface methodology (RMS). The 3-factor Box-Behnken design (BBD) was applied, and a second-order polynomial regression analysis was used to analyze the experimental data. The results showed that 0.45 g L−1 of sodium bicarbonate combined with a good aerated agitation (0.6 L min−1) and a cultivation period of 18 days are optimal to produce 5.02 g L−1 of biomass containing 43% of carbohydrates.
Under these optimized growth conditions, accumulation of carbohydrates was studied using different modes of nutritional stress. The results indicated that carbohydrate content was improved and the maximum accumulation (about 60% of the dry weight) was recorded under sulfur starvation with only a 14% reduction in biomass as compared to control. This study showed promising results as to biomass production and carbohydrate yield by the microalgae C. debaryana in view of production of third-generation biofuels.
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We thank Dr. Abdellatif Janati Idrissi for assistance with administrative procedures.
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This work was funded by grant program PPR1 of the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research.
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KT: developed experimental methods, performed experiments, analyzed data, created figures, and drafted the main manuscript text. LJ: contributed to funding applications, research supervision, and data analysis. LS: contributed to development of experimental methods. ME: acquired funding, conceptualized the design procedure and application, and edited the manuscript. AMA, LA, and AJI: contributed to funding applications, supervised the research, and edited the manuscript.
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Tazi, K., Jamai, L., Seddouk, L. et al. Improving carbohydrate accumulation in Chlamydomonas debaryana induced by sulfur starvation using response surface methodology. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 23949–23962 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17583-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-17583-3