Differences between Motile and Nonmotile Cells of Haematococcus pluvialis in the Production of Astaxanthin at Different Light Intensities.

Feng Li,Minggang Cai,Chunhui Wang,Ding Chen,Xuehong Zheng,Xianghu Huang,Shaoting Wu,Hongwei Ke,Yu An,Mingwei Lin,Jun Wang

doi:10.3390/md17010039

Feng Li, Minggang Cai + Show 9 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/md17010039

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Abstract

Haematococcus pluvialis, as the best natural resource of astaxanthin, is widely used in nutraceuticals, aquaculture, and cosmetic industries. The purpose of this work was to compare the differences in astaxanthin accumulation between motile and nonmotile cells of H. pluvialis and to determine the relationship between the two cells and astaxanthin production. The experiment design was achieved by two different types of H. pluvialis cell and three different light intensities for an eight day induction period. The astaxanthin concentrations in nonmotile cell cultures were significantly increased compared to motile cell cultures. The increase of astaxanthin was closely associated with the enlargement of cell size, and the nonmotile cells were more conducive to the formation of large astaxanthin-rich cysts than motile cells. The cyst enlargement and astaxanthin accumulation of H. pluvialis were both affected by light intensity, and a general trend was that the higher the light intensity, the larger the cysts formed, and the larger the quantity of astaxanthin accumulated. In addition, the relatively low cell mortality rate in the nonmotile cell cultures indicated that the nonmotile cells have a stronger tolerance to photooxidative stress. We suggest that applying nonmotile cells as the major cell type of H. pluvialis to the induction period may help to enhance the content of astaxanthin and the stability of astaxanthin production.

Highlights

Astaxanthin is a high-value red ketocarotenoid of a predominantly marine origin with a powerful antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory property [1,2,3]
A rapid increase in astaxanthin content was observed within the first four or six days in nonmotile cell cultures, and the trend was that the higher the light intensity, the greater the increase in astaxanthin content
Most of the previous studies focused on the production of astaxanthin using H. pluvialis vegetable cells [24,31,32,33,34], which are a mixture usually composed of green motile vegetative cells and green nonmotile vegetative cells

Summary

Introduction

Astaxanthin is a high-value red ketocarotenoid of a predominantly marine origin with a powerful antioxidant capacity and anti-inflammatory property [1,2,3]. As one of the promising agents for the prevention of oxidative stress-related diseases, astaxanthin has received extensive attention in the basic and clinical research area in recent years [4,5,6]. Natural astaxanthin is widely found in various microorganisms and marine animals [7,8]. The microalgae Haematococccus pluvialis (Chlorophyceae, Volvocales) is considered to be the best natural resource for the commercial production. Mar. Drugs 2019, 17, 39; doi:10.3390/md17010039 www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs. Mar. Drugs 2019, 17, 39 of natural astaxanthin because it can synthesize and accumulate natural astaxanthin to 3–5% of its own dry weight [9,10,11]

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