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The effect of mixotrophy on microalgal growth, lipid content, and expression levels of three pathway genes in Chlorella sorokiniana

  • Bioenergy and Biofuels
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Abstract

Nannochloropsis oculata CCMP 525, Dunaliella salina FACHB 435, and Chlorella sorokiniana CCTCC M209220 were compared in mixotrophic and photoautotrophic cultures in terms of growth rate, protein, and lipid content. Growth improved in glucose, and the biomass productivities of N. oculata, D. salina, and C. sorokiniana were found to be 1.4-, 2.2- and 4.2-fold that observed photoautotrophically. However, biomass and lipid production decreased at the highest glucose concentrations. Meanwhile, the content of protein and lipid were significantly augmented for mixotrophic conditions at least for some species. C. sorokiniana was found to be well suited for lipid production based on its high biomass production rate and lipid content reaching 51% during mixotrophy. Expression levels of accD (heteromeric acetyl-CoA carboxylase beta subunit), acc1 (homomeric acetyl-CoA carboxylase), rbcL (ribulose 1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase large subunit) genes in C. sorokiniana were studied by real-time PCR. Increased expression levels of accD reflect the increased lipid content in stationary phase of mixotrophic growth, but expression of the acc1 gene remains low, suggesting that this gene may not be critical to lipid accumulation. Additionally, reduction of expression of the rbcL gene during mixotrophy indicated that utilization of glucose was found to reduce the role of this gene and photosynthesis.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by Chinese Natural Science Foundation For Distinguished Group (no. 50621063) and Graduate Innovation Project of Central South University (no. 2010bsxt05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410083, China

    Minxi Wan, Peng Liu, Jinlan Xia, Zhenyuan Nie & Guanzhou Qiu

  2. Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Minxi Wan, Julian N. Rosenberg & Michael J. Betenbaugh

  3. Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy of the Ministry of Education of China, Changsha, 410083, China

    Jinlan Xia, Zhenyuan Nie & Guanzhou Qiu

  4. Department of Biochemistry, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA

    George A. Oyler

Authors
  1. Minxi Wan
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  2. Peng Liu
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  3. Jinlan Xia
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  4. Julian N. Rosenberg
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  5. George A. Oyler
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  6. Michael J. Betenbaugh
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  7. Zhenyuan Nie
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  8. Guanzhou Qiu
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Correspondence to Jinlan Xia.

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M. Wan and P. Liu contributed equally to this work.

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Wan, M., Liu, P., Xia, J. et al. The effect of mixotrophy on microalgal growth, lipid content, and expression levels of three pathway genes in Chlorella sorokiniana . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 91, 835–844 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3399-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-011-3399-8

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