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Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of the Green Microalga Chlorella sorokiniana Cultivated in the Single Culture and a Consortium with Bacteria for Wastewater Remediation

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Abstract

Co-culture of microalgae with many types of bacteria usually comes out with significant different treatment efficiencies for COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus in wastewater remediation, compared with the single culture. In order to understand the mechanism behind, a comparative experiment was designed in this study, using the green microalgae species Chlorella sorokiniana in the single culture and a consortium with a bacterium, Pseudomonas H4, for nutrient removal. Comparative metabolome profile analysis was conducted to reveal the Chlorella cell responses to the synergistic growth with the bacteria, and possible relations between the metabolic regulation of microalgae and the nutrient degradation were discussed. The detectable differential metabolites of Chlorella belonged to several classes, including carbohydrates, fatty acids, amino acids, phosphates, polyols, etc. The orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA) model of the identified metabolites suggests the metabolism in this alga was significantly affected by the bacteria, corresponding to different treatment behaviors.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51208305), Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality Program (No. 14DZ1203800), and Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai (No. 16ZR1440000).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, 99 Shangda Road, Shanghai, 200444, China

    Taojing Chen & Yunfeng Xu

  2. Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201210, China

    Taojing Chen, Quanyu Zhao, Liang Wang & Wei Wei

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  1. Taojing Chen
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  2. Quanyu Zhao
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Correspondence to Liang Wang.

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Chen, T., Zhao, Q., Wang, L. et al. Comparative Metabolomic Analysis of the Green Microalga Chlorella sorokiniana Cultivated in the Single Culture and a Consortium with Bacteria for Wastewater Remediation. Appl Biochem Biotechnol 183, 1062–1075 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-017-2484-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12010-017-2484-6

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