Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2013, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (2): 168-173.DOI: 10.3724/SP.J.1259.2013.00168

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Effect of Photoperiod on Microalgae Haematococcus pluvialis

Tao Wei1†, Wenhui Gu2,3†, Jian Li1, Bo Zhang1, Guanghua Pan1, Daling Zhu1, Guangce Wang2*   

  1. 1College of Marine Science & Engineering, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China;

    2Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China;

    3Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2012-04-12 Revised:2012-08-10 Online:2013-03-01 Published:2013-04-07
  • Contact: Guangce Wang

Abstract: Haematococcus pluvialis is a green microalga with the largest astaxanthin content among all the potential organism sources in the world. Astaxanthin is a red ketocarotenoid with high antioxidant ability and has been widely used in aquaculture, nutraceutical, cosmetic and food industries. Illumination is an essential factor for the photosynthesis of algae. As well, light intensity and photoperiod greatly affect the growth and astaxanthin accumulation of H. pluvialis. In this work, we studied the effect of photoperiod on the growth and astaxanthin accumulation of H. pluvialis under different light intensities (70, 120 and 300 μmol·m–2·s–1) by analyzing cell morphologic features, growth rate and astaxanthin content under different conditions. The suitable photoperiod was 16/8 h, with maximal growth 0.43 d–1 obtained at 120 μmol·m–2·s–1. The astaxanthin content within a single cell increased with the light intensity and illumination time increases. After 15 days, the alga cell turned bright red under continuous illumination at 300 μmol·m–2·s–1, with average diameter 21.02 μm. The highest astaxanthin content was 39.40 pg·cell–1.

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