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Biomass, nutrient uptake and fatty acid composition of Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L in response to different nitrogen sources

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Abstract

Nitrogen removal from media by microalgae provides the potential benefit of producing lipids for biodiesel and biomass. However, research is limited on algal growth and biomass under different nitrogen sources and provides little insight in terms of biofuel production. We studied the influences of nitrogen sources on cell growth and lipid accumulation of Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L, one of a promising oil rich micro algal species. Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L grown in NH4Cl medium had maximum growth rate. While the highest dry biomass of 0.28 g/L was obtained in media containing NH4NO3, the highest lipid content of 0.21 g/g was achieved under nitrogendeficiency condition with a dry biomass of 0.24 g/L. In terms of total polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) production, NH4NO3 and NH4Cl media performed better than nitrogen-deficiency and KNO3 media. Furthermore, NH4NO3 and NH4Cl media elucidated better results on C18:3 and C20:5 productions while KNO3 and -N conditions were better in C16:0, C18:1 and C18:2, comparatively.

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Correspondence to Jinlai Miao.

Additional information

Foundation of China–Shandong Joint Fund under contract No. U1406402; the Basic Scientific Fund for National Public Research Institutes of China under contract No. 2015G10; the Polar Strategic Foundation of China under contract No. 20150303; the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean under contract No. 201405015; the Scientific and Technological Innovation Project Financially Supported by Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology and the Science under contract No. 2015ASKJ02; the Science and Technology Planning Project of Shandong Province under contract No. 2014GHY115003; the Major Projects of Independent Innovation Achievements Transformation in Shandong Province under contract No. 2014ZZCX06202; Qingdao Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pioneers Program under contract No. 15-10-3-15-(44)-zch.

These authors contributed equally to this work.

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An, M., Wang, Y., Liu, F. et al. Biomass, nutrient uptake and fatty acid composition of Chlamydomonas sp. ICE-L in response to different nitrogen sources. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 36, 105–110 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-017-0984-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-017-0984-4

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