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Carotenoid Profile in Prochlorococcus sp. and Enrichment of Lutein Using Different Nitrogen Sources

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Abstract

Various carotenoids of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus sp. are identified using chromatographic/spectroscopic techniques and quantified using HPLC-DAD. In the present study, β-apo-8′-carotenal was used as internal standard. Identification of carotenoids was carried out by comparing the retention time, absorption spectra, and mass spectra of unknown peaks with reference standards. All-trans-lutein was found to be the major carotenoid in this cyanobacterium, and, therefore, algal productivity and the potential for lutein accumulation were analyzed as a function of different nitrogen sources such as nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and urea for cultivation. Among them, urea clearly led to the best lutein accumulation. According to the experimental evidence, lutein increased from 2.54 to 3.34 mg g−1 in the cyanobacteria when urea was used as the nitrogen source.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey for the support of this work through the project TBAG 110T099 and also the Center of Material’s Research at İzmir Institute of Technology for the facilities (SEM and Elemental Analyzer).

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Author notes

  1. Ayşegül Erdoğan

    Present address: EGE MATAL (Ege University Application and Research Center for Testing and Analysis), Ege University, Bornova, 35100, İzmir, Turkey

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, İzmir Institute of Technology, Urla, 35430, İzmir, Turkey

    Ayşegül Erdoğan & Ahmet E. Eroğlu

  2. Department of Bioengineering, Ege University, Bornova, 35100, Izmir, Turkey

    Zeliha Demirel & Meltem Conk Dalay

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  1. Ayşegül Erdoğan
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  2. Zeliha Demirel
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  3. Ahmet E. Eroğlu
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  4. Meltem Conk Dalay
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Correspondence to Ayşegül Erdoğan.

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Erdoğan, A., Demirel, Z., Eroğlu, A.E. et al. Carotenoid Profile in Prochlorococcus sp. and Enrichment of Lutein Using Different Nitrogen Sources. J Appl Phycol 28, 3251–3257 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0861-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-016-0861-0

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