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Enhanced lipid accumulation of photoautotrophic microalgae by high-dose CO2 mimics a heterotrophic characterization

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Abstract

Microalgae possess higher photosynthetic efficiency and accumulate more neutral lipids when supplied with high-dose CO2. However, the nature of lipid accumulation under conditions of elevated CO2 has not been fully elucidated so far. We now revealed that the enhanced lipid accumulation of Chlorella in high-dose CO2 was as efficient as under heterotrophic conditions and this may be attributed to the driving of enlarged carbon source. Both photoautotrophic and heterotrophic cultures were established by using Chlorella sorokiniana CS-1. A series of changes in the carbon fixation, lipid accumulation, energy conversion, and carbon-lipid conversion under high-dose CO2 (1–10 %) treatment were characterized subsequently. The daily carbon fixation rate of C. sorokiniana LS-2 in 10 % CO2 aeration was significantly increased compared with air CO2. Correspondingly, double oil content (28 %) was observed in 10 % CO2 aeration, close to 32.3 % produced under heterotrophic conditions. In addition, with 10 % CO2 aeration, the overall energy yield (Ψ) in Chlorella reached 12.4 from 7.3 % (with air aeration) because of the enhanced daily carbon fixation rates. This treatment also improved the energetic lipid yield (Ylipid/Es) with 4.7-fold, tending to the heterotrophic parameters. More significantly, 2.2 times of carbon-lipid conversion efficiency (ηClipid/Ctotal, 42.4 %) was observed in 10 % CO2 aeration, towards to 53.7 % in heterotrophic cultures, suggesting that more fixed carbon might flow into lipid synthesis under both 10 % CO2 aeration and heterotrophic conditions. Taken together, all our evidence showed that 10 % CO2 may push photoautotrophic Chlorella to display heterotrophic-like efficiency at least in lipid production. It might bring us an efficient model of lipid production based on microalgal cells with high-dose CO2, which is essential to sustain biodiesel production at large scales.

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Abbreviations

Es:

The total energy supplied to the reactor

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

CCD:

Central composite design

Xmax:

The maximum biomass

Pmax:

The maximum productivity

μ:

Specific growth rate

qmax :

Specific formation rate of lipid

Es:

The total energy supplied to the reactor

Ylipid/Es :

Energetic lipid yield

Qb and Qs:

The heat of combustion of C. sorokiniana and glucose

Ψ:

Energy yield

ηClipid/Ctotal :

Carbon-lipid conversion efficiency

FDavg and FDmax:

The average and maximum carbon fixation

CCMs:

CO2 concentrating mechanisms

DIC:

Dissolved inorganic carbon

CBB:

The Calvin–Benson–Bassham

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Jiangsu Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Funds (CX (12) 3041), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20130712), and the Open Foundation of Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Microbes and Functional Genomics Key Laboratory (164070303402). Dr. Ali Parsaeimehr and Dr. Sitwat Aman critically read the manuscript. Undergraduate student Dongling Liang assisted in the experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biotechnology, Provincial Key Laboratory of Agrobiology, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing, 210014, Jiangsu, China

    Zhilan Sun, Xiao Dou, Bing He, Yuancong Wang & Yi-Feng Chen

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Microbes and Functional Genomics, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210046, Jiangsu, China

    Zhilan Sun

  3. School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng, 224051, Jiangsu, China

    Jun Wu

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  1. Zhilan Sun
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  2. Xiao Dou
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Correspondence to Yi-Feng Chen.

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Sun, Z., Dou, X., Wu, J. et al. Enhanced lipid accumulation of photoautotrophic microalgae by high-dose CO2 mimics a heterotrophic characterization. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 32, 9 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-015-1963-6

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