Protein, phycocyanin, and polysaccharide production by Arthrospira platensis grown with LED light in annular photobioreactors

Abstract

Arthrospira platensis is a cyanobacterium known for its widespread use as nutraceutical and food additive. Besides a high protein content, this microorganism is also endowed with several bioactivities related to health benefits in humans that make it a candidate for functional foods. These properties are strain and culture condition dependent. We compared, in terms of biomass productivity and protein, C-phycocyanin, and polysaccharide content, two A. platensis strains, A. platensis F&M-C256 and A. platensis F&M-C260, characterized by morphological differences. The organisms were grown in annular photobioreactors with light-emitting diodes (LED) as light source in fed-batch and semi-continuous regimes. No significant differences in biomass productivity were found between the two strains. Both strains showed a protein content >55% in all culture conditions. C-phycocyanin content was higher in A. platensis F&M-C260 in semi-continuous regime. Cellular polysaccharide (PS) content, which included intracellular polysaccharide and those bound to the cell wall, was higher in A. platensis F&M-C256 during semi-continuous cultivation. In both strains, a higher release of polysaccharide was observed at the end of the fed-batch regime. A. platensis F&M-C256 showed the advantage to form clumps which facilitate harvesting, behavior not observed in A. platensis F&M-C260 and probably related to the different predominant monosaccharide found in the PS of the two strains (i.e., rhamnose in A. platensis F&M-C256 and glucose in A. platensis F&M-C260). The results show that the two strains are suitable for commercial production of high-value products, such as protein and C-phycocyanin, while for polysaccharide production, A. platensis F&M-C256 is preferable.

The Effect of LEDs on Biomass and Phycobiliproteins Production in Thermotolerant Oscillatoria sp.

“…Another example of this is the results achieved by Klepacz-Smółka et al [25] by using Synechococcus PCC 6715 (red LEDs, 100 µmol m −2 s −1 , and 16 h of light and 8 h of dark), which achieved the highest concentration reported for research of this type (8.6 g/L) and is even more interesting since no inorganic carbon sources were used in the BG11 medium. According to different articles published internationally in recent years, the effect of the parameters mentioned above on the synthesis of phycobiliproteins does not follow a fixed pattern [73][74][75]. Therefore, strains of the same species may have different light requirements.…”

Shaping the phycosphere: Analysis of the EPS in diatom‐bacterial co‐cultures

“…The EPS present in the supernatant were then precipitated using 70% ethanol and pelleted at 3500 × g for 20 min. The pelleted EPS were hydrolyzed and subjected to analysis using a Dionex ICS‐2500 ion exchange chromatographer (IEC) following the methods described in Zanolla et al (2022). To assess the growth of both the diatom and the bacterium, measurements were taken every 7 d (See Appendix S1) in order to compare their growth rates and the EPS composition.…”

The use of D-Optimal Mixture Design in the development of date stone and spirulina tablet formulation as a phycocyanin dietary supplement

“…It is commonly used in nutrition and food industry and contains a wide range of coloured compounds and large amounts of essential elements for developing and maintaining the human body [1]. Beyond its interesting nutritional capacities, spirulina also contains many proteins and molecules representing unrealised medical interest at the moment, in particular phycocyanin [2]. Phycocyanin is a component usually present in red algae and cyanobacteria [3].…”