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Assessment of different carbohydrates as exogenous carbon source in cultivation of cyanobacteria

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Abstract

Glucose is the substrate most widely used as exogenous carbon source for heterotrophic cultivation of cyanobacteria. Due to limited information about the use of different carbohydrates as carbon sources to support cyanobacterial heterotrophic metabolism, the objective of this work was to evaluate different monosaccharides (arabinose, fructose, galactose, glucose, mannose and xylose), disaccharides (lactose, maltose, sucrose and trehalose) and polysaccharides (carboxymethylcellulose, cassava starch, Hi-maize®, maltodextrin Corn Globe 1805® and xylan) as exogenous carbon source for heterotrophic culture of cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. The batch cultivation using fructose as organic carbon source resulted in the highest (p < 0.05) cell biomass (5,540 mg/L) in parallel with the highest (p < 0.05) substrate yield coefficient (0.67 mgbiomass/mgfructose). Mannose was the carbon source with the highest (p < 0.05) substrate consumption rate (3,185.7 mg/L/day) and maltodextrin was the carbohydrate with major potential to produce biomass (1,072.8 mgbiomass/L/day) and lipids (160.8 mglipids/L/day). Qualitatively, the fatty acid profiles of the lipid extract from Phormidium sp. showed predominance of saturated chains for the cultures grown with most of the carbon sources, with the exception of the ones grown with xylose and maltodextrin.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this research was provided by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP, Brazil).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, University of Campinas, UNICAMP, Campinas, SP, 13083-970, Brazil

    Érika Cristina Francisco & Telma Teixeira Franco

  2. Food Science and Technology Department, Federal University of Santa Maria, UFSM, Santa Maria, RS, 97105-900, Brazil

    Roger Wagner & Eduardo Jacob-Lopes

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  1. Érika Cristina Francisco
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  2. Telma Teixeira Franco
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  3. Roger Wagner
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  4. Eduardo Jacob-Lopes
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Correspondence to Eduardo Jacob-Lopes.

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Francisco, É.C., Franco, T.T., Wagner, R. et al. Assessment of different carbohydrates as exogenous carbon source in cultivation of cyanobacteria. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 37, 1497–1505 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1121-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-013-1121-1

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