Application Of Lipids Research Articles

Culture-Independent and Culture-Dependent Characterization of the Black Soldier Fly Gut Microbiome Reveals a Large Proportion of Culturable Bacteria with Potential for Industrial Applications.

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL) are fast-growing, resilient insects that can break down a variety of organic substrates and convert them into valuable proteins and lipids for applications in the feed industry. Decomposition is mediated by an abundant and versatile gut microbiome, which has been studied for more than a decade. However, little is known about the phylogeny, properties and functions of bacterial isolates from the BSFL gut. We therefore characterized the BSFL gut microbiome in detail, evaluating bacterial diversity by culture-dependent methods and amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene. Redundant strains were identified by genomic fingerprinting and 105 non-redundant isolates were then tested for their ability to inhibit pathogens. We cultivated representatives of 26 genera, covering 47% of the families and 33% of the genera detected by amplicon sequencing. Among these isolates, we found several representatives of the most abundant genera: Morganella, Enterococcus, Proteus and Providencia. We also isolated diverse members of the less-abundant phylum Actinobacteria, and a novel genus of the order Clostridiales. We found that 15 of the isolates inhibited at least one of the tested pathogens, suggesting a role in helping to prevent colonization by pathogens in the gut. The resulting culture collection of unique BSFL gut bacteria provides a promising resource for multiple industrial applications.

Strategic enhancement of algal biomass and lipid in Chlorococcum infusionum as bioenergy feedstock

Algal biomass can serve as rich source of bioproducts including lipids for diverse commercial applications. Both biomass production and lipid accumulation are limited by several factors, of which nutrients play a vital role. In the present investigation, the nutritional requirement for the growth by a (an autotrophic) Chlorococcum infusionum was determined using a Plackett–Burman based statistical screening experiment. Five out of the fifteen factors of a reported production medium were found to be significantly affecting the biomass growth. The components NaNO3, K2HPO4, FeSO4.7H2O and KOH had direct proportional correlation with biomass production, while MgSO4 showed inverse proportional relationship in the selected experimental range. Nitrogen was the most influential factor with an effect contribution of 45.77% and a very low p-value of <0.001. The most favorable nitrogen source was potassium nitrate which could replace both sodium nitrate and potassium hydroxide. More than two fold increase in biomass concentration was achieved by screening and standardizing the media components of Bold Basal Medium. Lipid accumulation under normal condition was 12–15% dry cell weight (dcw). Under nitrogen starvation condition, it was 30–35% dcw. However, a semi-starvation condition at 1.75mM of sodium nitrate induced lipid production as high as 40±2% dcw. FAME analysis in GC showed the presence of more saturated fatty acids. Results obtained in this work can further be applied to optimize production of algal biomass and lipid for applications like biofuel, fish or animal feed, fertilizer, etc. Also information obtained could be exploited for wastewater treatment processes.