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Acclimation of the Aerial Microalga Coccomyxa subellipsoidea KGU-D001 to Water Stress in the Aerial Phase

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Abstract

Aerial microalgae are resistant to nutrient and drought stresses and can survive even in harsh environments lacking water and nutrients. In this study, the adaptation mechanisms of microalgae to water stress by culturing aerial microalgae in a water-deprived environment were elucidated, and their biomass and lipid productivity were evaluated. Biofilms of the aerial microalga Coccomyxa subellipsoidea KGU-D001 (C. subellipsoidea) or the freshwater microalga Chlorella vulgaris (Chl. vulgaris) growing on silicon sheets were cultured under the same water stress conditions. C. subellipsoidea could maintain its photosynthetic activity at least for 14 days, while Chl. vulgaris drastically decreased its photosynthetic activity during the first 7 days. The cell wall carbohydrate content of C. subellipsoidea increased during the first 7 days more than Chl. vulgaris. The fatty acids content in C. subellipsoidea increased 3.0-fold during the first 7 days and 1.7-fold from day 7 to day 14 of culture. In Chl. vulgaris, the fatty acid content increased by 2.2 times during the first 7 days and then remained constant from days 7 to 14 of culture. Fatty acid productivities were 17.3 and 14.2 mg/g/d in C. subellipsoidea and Chl. vulgaris, respectively. These findings suggest that the rapid formation of a thicker cell wall contributes to cellular acclimation to water stress conditions and the accumulation of lipids in C. subellipsoidea.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Jennifer Smith, PhD, from Edanz Group (https://jp.edanz.com/ac), for editing a draft of this manuscript.

Funding

This work was supported by the Strategic Research Foundation Grant-aided Project for Private Universities from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport, Science, and Technology, Japan (S1411005) and by the Research Institute for Science and Technology of Kogakuin University for a special Grant-in-Aid to earn KAKENHI by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Life Science, School of Advanced Engineering, Kogakuin University, 2665-1 Nakano-machi, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0015, Japan

    Nobuhiro Aburai, Rei Morita & Katsuhiko Fujii

  2. School of Life Sciences, Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, 1432-1 Horinouchi, Hachioji, Tokyo, 192-0392, Japan

    Hiroki Miyauchi, Katsuhiko Okada, Norihiro Sato & Shoko Fujiwara

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Contributions

Nobuhiro Aburai: conceptualization, resources, writing—review and editing—visualization, supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition. Rei Morita: conceptualization, methodology, validation, formal analysis, investigation, data curation, and writing —original draft. Hiroki Miyauchi: methodology, validation, and formal analysis. Katsuhiko Okada: formal analysis, investigation, and resources. Norihiro Sato: formal analysis, investigation, resources, and writing—review and editing. Shoko Fujiwara: formal analysis, investigation, resources, and writing—review and editing. Katsuhiko Fujii: supervision, project administration, and funding acquisition.

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Aburai, N., Morita, R., Miyauchi, H. et al. Acclimation of the Aerial Microalga Coccomyxa subellipsoidea KGU-D001 to Water Stress in the Aerial Phase. Bioenerg. Res. 17, 622–633 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12155-023-10651-1

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