Effect of environmental and Nutritional conditions on Marine microalga Isochrysis galbana Parke

Abstract

The marine microalga Isochrysis galbana Parke was studied to optimize its growth conditions in flask culture. Important medium components studied include nitrogen source, buffer, trace elements and vitamins. Environmental conditions include pH, temperature, light intensity, mixing extent and working volume. The medium prepared from natural sea-waters gave a higher final cell density than the medium prepared from synthetic sea-water Nitrate was a better source than ammonium. In the range of 0.4∼2mM, the final cell density was proportional to the initial nitrate concentration and the cell yield was estimated to be 8.5g dry cell wt/g N. For phosphate, optimal growth was observed in 0.1∼1.0mM but a considerable variation in pH was resulted. The addition of Tris at 5mM or 7mM could stabilize the medium pH, but this significantly reduced both growth rate and final cell density, The effect of trace elements and vitamins was negligible. Optimal temperature and initial pH were 20∘C and 8. When the intensity of incident light was varied in the range of 400∼2100 lux, the growth rate increased from 10mL to 70mL, the final cell density decreased although the initial growth rate did not change. Optimal agitation speed was 100rpm when working volume was 30mL. With optimal conditions, the maximum specific growth rate obtained was 0.021hr-1 and the final cell density was 1.1g/L.