Mixotrophy, a more promising culture mode: Multi-faceted elaboration of carbon and energy metabolism mechanisms to optimize microalgae culture

Shengzhou Shan; Artem Yurevich Manyakhin; Chun Wang; Baosheng Ge; Jichang Han; Xuezhi Zhang; Chengxu Zhou; Xiaojun Yan; Roger Ruan; Pengfei Cheng

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129512

Mixotrophy, a more promising culture mode: Multi-faceted elaboration of carbon and energy metabolism mechanisms to optimize microalgae culture

Bioresour Technol. 2023 Oct:386:129512. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129512. Epub 2023 Jul 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ College of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, China.
² Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Federal Scientific Center of East Asian Terrestrial Biodiversity, 100-letiya Vladivostoka Prospect, 159, Vladivostok 690022, Russia.
³ State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing and Center for Bioengineering and Biotechnology, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China.
⁴ Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Marine Biotechnology of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, China.
⁶ Center for Biorefining, and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA.
⁷ College of Food and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ningbo University, Ningbo, Zhejiang 315211, China; Center for Biorefining, and Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA. Electronic address: chengpengfei@nbu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37481043
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2023.129512

Abstract

Some mixotrophic microalgae appear to exceed the sum of photoautotrophy and heterotrophy in terms of biomass production. This paper mainly reviews the carbon and energy metabolism of microalgae to reveal the synergistic mechanisms of the mixotrophic mode from multiple aspects. It explains the shortcomings of photoautotrophic and heterotrophic growth, highlighting that the mixotrophic mode is not simply the sum of photoautotrophy and heterotrophy. Specifically, microalgae in mixotrophic mode can be divided into separate parts of photoautotrophic and heterotrophic cultures, and the synergistic parts of photoautotrophic culture enhance aerobic respiration and heterotrophic culture enhance the Calvin cycle. Additionally, this review argues that current deficiencies in mixotrophic culture can be improved by uncovering the synergistic mechanism of the mixotrophic mode, aiming to increase biomass growth and improve quality. This approach will enable the full utilization of advantagesin various fields, and provide research directions for future microalgal culture.

Keywords: Carbon metabolism; Energy metabolism; Mixotrophy culture; Synergistic mechanism.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Biomass
Carbon / metabolism
Energy Metabolism
Heterotrophic Processes
Microalgae* / metabolism
Photosynthesis

Substances

Carbon