Mixotrophic productivity of the marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum cultured with soluble fractions of rye, wheat and potato

Abstract

The marine microalga Phaeodactylum tricornutum was cultured semi-continuously with the soluble fractions of wheat, rye and boiled potato flours. Fifteen percent of the culture volume was renewed every 3 d. The cell productivities were 0.9 x 109 cells/l/d, 1.1 x 109 cells/l/d and 2.6 x 109 cells/l/d for wheat, rye and potato respectively. The productivity of the autotrophic control was 1.0 x 109 cell/l/d. When a soluble fraction of raw potato was added, the productivity was enhanced to 4.1 x 109 cells/l/d, 2.4 times higher than the autotrophic culture. The high productivity of P. tricornutum with the soluble fractions of Solanum tuberosum suggests its usefulness as a source of nutrients for the production of microalgal biomass.