Recently, the marketable value of ω-3 fatty acid, particularly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), increased considering their health effects for human consumption. Microalgae are considered a valuable and "green" source of EPA alternative to fish oils, but considerable efforts are necessary for their exploitation at an industrial level. Due to the high operation costs of photoautotrophic microalgae cultivation, heterotrophic growth represents a promising economic solution. Marine diatoms are the major ecological producers of ω-3 fatty acids. Few species of diatoms are capable to grow in the dark using organic carbon sources. The marine diatom Cyclotella cryptica was cultivated for 14 days under photoautotrophic and heterotrophic conditions to define the effects on growth parameters, lipid production, total fatty acids and EPA content. Photoautotrophic conditions led to a total EPA production of 1.6% of dry weight, 12.2 mg L-1 culture and productivity of 0.9 mg L-1 day-1. The heterotrophy cultures reported a total EPA production of 2.7% of dry cell weight, 18 mg L-1 culture, a productivity of 1.3 mg L-1 day-1, which are promising values in the prospective of improving culture parameters for the biotechnological exploitation of dark cultivation. C. cryptica could be a potential candidate for the heterotrophic production of EPA, also considering its robustness, capacity to resist to bacterial contaminations and plasticity of lipid metabolism.
Keywords: biomass; lipids; microalgae; omega-3 fatty acids.