Autotrophic vs. Heterotrophic Cultivation of the Marine Diatom Cyclotella cryptica for EPA Production

Marine Drugs

Simone Landi¹  Genoveffa Nuzzo²  Angelo Fontana²  Emiliano Manzo²  Giuliana d’Ippolito²  Carmela Gallo²  Adelaide Cupo²  Salvatore Morra² 

[1] Department of Biology, University of Naples “Federico II”, Via Cinthia, 80126 Napoli, Italy;Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry ICB-CNR, Via Campi Flegrei 34, 80078 Naples, Italy;

关键词: microalgae;    omega-3 fatty acids;    biomass;    lipids;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md19070355

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Recently, the marketable value of ω-3 fatty acid, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), increased considering their health effects for human consumption. Microalgae are considered a valuable and “green” source of EPA alternative to fish oils, but considerable efforts are necessary for their exploitation at an industrial level. Due to the high operation costs of photoautotrophic microalgae cultivation, heterotrophic growth represents a promising economic solution. Marine diatoms are the major ecological producers of ω-3 fatty acids. Few species of diatoms are capable to grow in the dark using organic carbon sources. The marine diatom Cyclotella cryptica was cultivated for 14 days under photoautotrophic and heterotrophic conditions to define the effects on growth parameters, lipid production, total fatty acids and EPA content. Photoautotrophic conditions led to a total EPA production of 1.6% of dry weight, 12.2 mg L⁻¹ culture and productivity of 0.9 mg L⁻¹ day⁻¹. The heterotrophy cultures reported a total EPA production of 2.7% of dry cell weight, 18 mg L⁻¹ culture, a productivity of 1.3 mg L⁻¹ day⁻¹, which are promising values in the prospective of improving culture parameters for the biotechnological exploitation of dark cultivation. C. cryptica could be a potential candidate for the heterotrophic production of EPA, also considering its robustness, capacity to resist to bacterial contaminations and plasticity of lipid metabolism.

【 授权许可】

Unknown