Metabolomic and physiological changes of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (Chlorophyceae, Chlorophyta) during batch culture development

• DOI: 10.1007/s10811-017-1326-9
• Publication Date: 2017-11-08T10:11:28Z
• Authors: Roman Puzanskiy; Elena Tarakhovskaya; Alexey Shavarda; Maria Shishova
• Keywords: Chlamydomonas reinhardtii; Chlorophyceae; Mixotroph; Chlamydomonas

During mixotrophic batch culturing, the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii goes through S-shaped growth kinetics and cells consistently transit from division to death. Photosynthesis and respiration had two simultaneous maxima at the first half of the exponential growth phase and at the border of the stationary phase. GC-MS analysis detected about 300 compounds of which about 100 were identified. Differences in metabolite profiles were observed between cells sampled at different time points of the growth curve. Several data mining methods clearly indicated that metabolomes tended to group together in a time-dependent manner. Clustering analysis revealed three major groups of metabolites varied in concentration dynamic. The alterations in lipophilic compounds and carbohydrates took place even within the same phase of culture growth, which indicated complex rearrangements in cell biochemistry and physiology. Special attention was paid to alterations in the ratios between metabolite groups. The most significant ratio changes were discovered for pools of amino and fatty acids.