Culture Medium and Growth Phase Modulate the Fatty Acid Composition of the Diatom Nitzschia palea (Kutzing) W. Smith-Potential Source for Live Feed and Biodiesel
Culture Medium and Growth Phase Modulate the Fatty Acid Composition of the Diatom Nitzschia palea (Kutzing) W. Smith-Potential Source for Live Feed and Biodiesel
Date
2020
Authors
Krishnan, Aswathy
Anandan, R.
Joseph, Aneykutty
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Society of Fisheries Technologists (India)
Abstract
The fresh water diatom Nitzschia palea was cultured
in four different culture media viz., f/2, Walne’s, Chu
and WC to determine the quality and production of
lipids and fatty acids in this diatom during
exponential and stationary phases of growth. The
lipid content showed significant variation between
culture media i.e. 10.97, 13.98, 25.43 and 21.43% in
the exponential phase and 19.09, 21.41, 19.29 and
18.54% in the stationary phase in f/2, Walne’s, Chu
and WC medium, respectively. The lipid fraction of
N. palea was mainly composed of myristic acid
(11.76 -19.8%), pentadecanoic acid (7.76 - 18.18%),
palmitic acid (3.0 - 15.1%), palmitoleic acid (3 -
15.1%), arachidonic acid (5.03 - 21.61%) and
eicosapentaenoic acid (2.61 - 19.86%). Saturated fatty
acids (SFAs) production was found to increase from
exponential to stationary phase in all the culture
media studied. Monounsaturated fatty acids
(MUFAs) were found to decrease in percentage from
exponential to stationary phase in f/2 and Walne’s
medium whereas in Chu and WC medium MUFAs
showed an increase in percentage in the stationary
phase. The polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)
showed a decrease in quantity as the culture entered
stationary phase. The results revealed that the
culture medium and the growth phase affect the
quantity of fatty acids considerably and the percentage
of fatty acids in each medium and growth phase
are significantly different (p<0.5). In N. palea
appreciable amount of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids were found which establishes the
importance of this diatom in the field of aquaculture
as live feed and biofuel production.
Description
Keywords
Nitzschia palea, culture medium, biofuel