High Productivity of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Fucoxanthin by a Marine Diatom Chaetoceros gracilis in a Semi-Continuous Culture

Saki Tachihana; Norio Nagao; Tomoyo Katayama; Minamo Hirahara; Fatimah Md Yusoff; Sanjoy Banerjee; Mohamed Shariff; Norio Kurosawa; Tatsuki Toda; Ken Furuya

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2020.602721

High Productivity of Eicosapentaenoic Acid and Fucoxanthin by a Marine Diatom Chaetoceros gracilis in a Semi-Continuous Culture

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2020 Dec 11:8:602721. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.602721. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Science and Engineering for Sustainable Innovation, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Soka University, Tokyo, Japan.
² Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology, Institute of Bioscience, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia.
³ Department of Aquatic Bioscience, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁴ Department of Aquaculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia.
⁵ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Seri Kembangan, Malaysia.

Abstract

Significantly high eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and fucoxanthin contents with high production rate were achieved in semi continuous culture of marine diatom. Effects of dilution rate on the production of biomass and high value biocompounds such as EPA and fucoxanthin were evaluated in semi-continuous cultures of Chaetoceros gracilis under high light condition. Cellular dry weight increased at lower dilution rate and higher light intensity conditions, and cell size strongly affected EPA and fucoxanthin contents. The smaller microalgae cells showed significantly higher (p < 0.05) value of 17.1 mg g-dw^-1 fucoxanthin and 41.5% EPA content per total fatty acid compared to those observed in the larger cells. Chaetoceros gracilis can accumulate relatively higher EPA and fucoxanthin than those reported previously. In addition, maintenance of small cell size by supplying sufficient nutrients and light energy can be the key for the increase production of valuable biocompounds in C. gracilis.

Keywords: Chaetoceros gracilis; dilution rate; eicosapentaenoic acid; fucoxanthin; microalgae production.