Early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae cultures
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1
Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (IPLeiria), Portugal
Microalgae are used in many different sectors like food industry (human and animal), biofuel
production and secondary metabolites production. In the last years, due to an increased demand of
microalgae, there was a huge effort in the study of efficiency systems for large scale production
leading to the development of very large photobioreactors. In these systems, microbial
contamination is one of the main cause of biomass loss, frequently resulting in the total culture loss.
Efficient treatment is frequently difficult because when symptoms become visible the destructive
effects are often irreversible. Traditional detection methods are very time consuming, making them
inadequate for the early detection of microbial contamination. An interesting alternative is the use
of molecular methodologies. The aim of this work was to study the efficiency of a PCR based
protocol in the early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae detection using a chlorella
culture as a model.
Samples were taken from chlorella cultures without any visible sign of contamination. DNA was
extracted using a commercial kit or by cell disruption using glass beads followed by a phenol
chloroform extraction. An in silico analysis of the universal primers, previously described in the
literature, for detection of microorganisms was performed. Primers presenting high sequence
divergence with the corresponding region of chlorella genome were selected. The results obtained
indicate that a PCR approach is very efficient in the early detection of microbial contaminants,
allowing their detections several days before the appearance of visible symptoms. In addition,
sequencing of the PCR products obtained from contaminated cultures allowed the identification of
the contaminating organism, which might be important in defining the correct control measures.
Keywords:
Microbial contamination,
PCR,
Microalgae,
Chlorella,
Algae culture
Conference:
IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Blue Biotech
Citation:
Lopes
C,
Simões
MA,
Costa
C,
Ricardo
P and
Rodrigues
A
(2019). Early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae cultures.
Front. Mar. Sci.
Conference Abstract:
IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018.
doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00044
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Received:
26 Apr 2018;
Published Online:
07 Jan 2019.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Cátia Costa, Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (IPLeiria), Peniche, Portugal, catiafilipaverissimo@gmail.com