The augmented lipid productivity in an emerging oleaginous model alga Coccomyxa subellipsoidea by nitrogen...

The lipid productivity controlled by both of biomass and lipid content was really crucial for economic-feasibility of microalgae-based biofuels production. This study attempted at augmenting lipid productivity in an emerging oleaginous model alga Coccomyxa subellipsoidea by different nitrogen manipulation including one-stage continuous N-sufficiency (OCNS), N-deprivation (OCND), N-limitation (OCNL), and also two-stage batch N-starvation (TBNS). Amongst four tested nitrogen manipulation strategies, OCNS performed remarkable promoting effect on cell metabolic growth and the maximum biomass was achieved by 7.39 g/L. Whereas TBNS regime induced the highest lipid content (over 50.5%). Only OCNL treatment augmented the lipid productivity by 232.37 mg/L/day, representing 1.25-fold more than TBNS and even as much as 5.06-fold more than that of OCND strategy. OCNL also strengthened the proportions of saturated (C16:0 and C18:0) and monounsaturated fatty acid (C18:1) which were inclined to high-quality biofuels-making. This might be due to that most part of energy and metabolic flux (e.g. acetyl-CoA) derived from TCA cycle and glycolysis flowed into fatty acids biosynthesis pathway (especially C18:1) response to OCNL manipulation. This study represented a pioneering work of utilizing OCNL for lipids production by C. subellipsoidea and clearly implied that OCNL might be a feasible way for algal lipid production on a commercial scale and also promoted the potential of C. subellipsoidea as an ideal biodiesel feedstock.