Abstract
Crypthecodinium cohnii, a marine alga used for the commercial production of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), was cultivated in medium containing sodium acetate as principal carbon source; the pH was maintained at a constant value by addition of acetic acid, which also provided an additional carbon source in a controlled manner. The accumulation of lipid by C. cohnii in this pH-auxostat culture was significantly greater than previously reported for batch cultures using glucose as principal carbon source. Of six strains tested in pH-auxostat cultures, C. cohnii ATCC 30772 was the best, with the cells reaching 20 to 30 g dry weight per liter after 98 to 144 h and containing in excess of 40% (w/w) total lipid, with DHA representing approximately half of the total fatty acids in the triacylglycerol fraction. A productivity of 36 mg DHAL−1 h−1 was achieved during cultivation for 98 h using a 5% (vol/vol) inoculum, and DHA production was in excess of 3 g per liter of culture. Most of the DHA was present in neutral lipids.
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Abbreviations
- ATCC:
-
American Type Culture Collection
- DHA:
-
docosahexaenoic acid
- EPA:
-
eicosapentaenoic acid
- GC:
-
gas chromatography
- TLC:
-
thin-layer chromatography
- vvm:
-
volume of air/volume of medium/min
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Ratledge, C., Kanagachandran, K., Anderson, A.J. et al. Production of docosahexaenoic acid by Crypthecodinium cohnii grown in a pH-auxostat culture with acetic acid as principal carbon source. Lipids 36, 1241–1246 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-001-0838-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-001-0838-x