Abstract
Microalgae contain high-value biochemical compounds including fatty acids (FA), protein and carotenoids, and are promising bioresources to enhance nutrition of food and animal feed. Important requirements for commercial strains are rapid growth and high productivities of desirable compounds. As these traits are believed to be found in aquatic environments with fluctuating conditions, we collected microalgae from marine and freshwater environments that are subjected to eutrophication and/or tidal fluctuations. Using this directed approach, 40 monoalgal cultures were isolated and 25 identified through 18S rDNA sequencing and morphological characterization. Based on their high growth rates (0.28–0.60 day−1) and biomass productivities (0.25–0.44 g L−1 day−1) in commercial fertilizer under standardized conditions, six new strains were selected. Scenedesmus sp. GW63 produced quality FA-rich biomass with high omega-3 polyunsaturated FA (28.5% of total FA (TFA)) contents, especially α-linolenic acid (ALA; 20.0% of TFA) with a very low n-6/n-3 ratio (0.4), and high FA productivity (32.6 mg L−1 day−1). A high protein productivity (34.5 mg L−1 day−1) made Desmodesmus sp. UQL1_26 (33.4% of dry weight (DW)) attractive as potential protein-rich feed and nutrition supplement. Monoraphidium convolutum GW5 displayed valuable carotenoid production (0.8% DW) with high carotenoid accumulation capability (0.8 mg L−1 day−1). This research provides a pathway for fast-tracking the selection of high-performing local microalgae from different environments for nutraceuticals, functional foods and animal feed applications.
Highlights
Microalgae are promising bioresources that contain a wide array of valuable bioproducts to enhance the nutritional value of food and animal feed
The morphological description matched with this finding, where the formation of spines was the distinct difference between Desmodesmus and Scenedesmus [43]
Non-spiny strains were identified as Scenedesmus, while spiny strains were assigned into the genus Desmodesmus
Summary
Microalgae are promising bioresources that contain a wide array of valuable bioproducts to enhance the nutritional value of food and animal feed. The numerous advantages of cultivating microalgae over terrestrial plants for food and feed applications are widely recognized: higher growth rates [2] and biomass productivities per land area [3]; cultivation on non-arable land [2,3,4,5]; high efficiencies in reducing greenhouse gas emission and removing CO2 from industrial flue gases by algae bio-fixation [6,7] Based on their potentially high biomass productivity and rich biochemical composition, there has been much interest to use microalgae for a diverse range of commercial applications. Of particular interest for these high-value products are biochemical compounds, such as fatty acids, protein and carotenoids, which have clear health-promoting properties [13,16,17]
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