Global Metabolome Analysis of Dunaliella tertiolecta, Phaeobacter italicus R11 Co-cultures using Thermal Desoprtion - Comprehensive Two-dimensional Gas Chromatography - Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (TD-GC×GC-TOFMS)

Abstract

Dunaliella tertiolecta is a marine microalgae that has been studied extensively as a potential carbon-neutral biofuel source. Microalgae oil contains high quantities of energy-rich fatty acids and lipids, but is not yet commercially viable as an alternative fuel. Carefully optimised growth conditions, and more recently, algal-bacterial co-cultures have been explored as a way of improving the yield of Dunaliella tertiolecta microalgae oils. The relationship between the host microalgae and bacterial co-cultures is currently poorly understood. Here, a complete workflow is proposed to analyse the global metabolomic profile of co-cultured Dunaliella tertiolectra and Phaeobacter italicus R11, which will enable researchers to explore the chemical nature of this relationship in more detail.