Bioprospecting for acidophilic lipid-rich green microalgae isolated from abandoned mine site water bodies

Abstract

With fossil fuel sources in limited supply, microalgae show tremendous promise as a carbon neutral source of biofuel. Current microalgae biofuel strategies typically rely on growing high-lipid producing laboratory strains of microalgae in open raceways or closed system photobioreactors. Unfortunately, these microalgae species are found to be sensitive to environmental stresses or competition by regional strains. Contamination by invasive species can diminish productivity of commercial algal processes. A potential improvement to current strategies is to identify high-lipid producing microalgae, which thrive in selected culture conditions that reduce the risk of contamination, such as low pH. Here we report the identification of a novel high-lipid producing microalgae which can tolerate low pH growth conditions. Lig 290 is a Scenedesmus spp. isolated from a low pH waterbody (pH = 4.5) in proximity to an abandoned lignite mine in Northern Ontario, Canada. Compared to a laboratory strain of Scendesmus dimorphus, Lig 290 demonstrated robust growth rates, a strong growth profile, and high lipid production. As a consequence, Lig 290 may have potential application as a robust microalgal species for use in biofuel production.

Imaging the accumulated intracellular microalgal lipids as a response to temperature stress

“…To identify algae species with high lipid content, lipophilic fluorescent dye Nile red which is commonly used as a vital stain for lipid-containing vesicles [also referred to as lipid bodies (LB)] was used within algal cells (Bertozzini et al 2011;Chen et al 2009;Cirulis et al 2012;Cooper et al 2010;Eibl et al 2014;Greenspan and Fowler 1985;Siaut et al 2011;Wang et al 2009). For the microscopy study, cells were grown to stationary phase.…”

Enhancement of total lipid yield by nitrogen, carbon, and iron supplementation in isolated microalgae

“…A study on unfavorable environmental conditions has been done to identify green microalgae that are stress resistant and have high lipid content (Eibl et al. ). Under stressful conditions, microalgae can direct their metabolism to the production of non‐polar lipids (triglycerides).…”

Evaluation of the population dynamics of microalgae isolated from the state of Chiapas, Mexico with respect to the nutritional quality of water

“…The algae were identified through the morphological analysis based on the general features of the freshwater algae that occur most frequently and are described by Bellinger and Sigee (2010) Ettl and Schlösser (1992) and Wehr and Sheath (2003) . Morphological observation was performed using light-field microscopy, according to the size and comparison with general records of external taxonomic databases such as AlgaeBase” (http://www.algaebase.org) and database of NCBI (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed), the authors ( Eibl et al 2014 mentioning that these data are relevant and important for the identification of new morphotypes (Table 4 ).…”