Effect of Temperature on Biological Macromolecules of Three Microalgae and Application of FT-IR for Evaluating Microalgal Lipid Characterization
Ting Zhao, Xiaotian Han, Huidi Cao
Abstract
This study had shown the growth of Phaeodactylum tricornutum, Chlorella vulgaris, and Nannochloropsis sp. under different temperatures and their structure and relative content of polysaccharide, protein, and lipid. Lipid was more suitable to accumulate under the condition of low temperature; however, polysaccharide and protein were not; they had a similar change trend but different amounts. The correlation between the relative content of the lipid and the total lipid and fatty acid in a single microalga cell was also analyzed. The results showed that the relative content of the lipid detected by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and the total lipid and the unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) obtained by a gravimetric method in a single microalga cell had a good linear relationship (R2 ≈ 0.8) while the correlation of saturated fatty acids is poor (R2 < 0.5). These studies had demonstrated that temperature was a key factor for phytoplankton that can influence their growth and biological macromolecule content. Moreover, FTIR spectroscopy was proved to be a meaningful technology for selecting the microalgae rich in total lipid and UFAs.