ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Fisheries, Aquaculture and Living Resources
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Role of Seaweeds in Sustainable Marine Practices and the Blue Economy.View all articles
Growth and hydrogen production of the cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 in a marine salt medium
Provisionally accepted
Gergely Ernő Lakatos1*
Bernardo Cicchi1Francesco Balestra1Anna Pugliese1
Eleftherios Touloupakis2
Graziella Chini Zittelli1
Giuseppe Torzillo1,3
Cecilia Faraloni1- 1Institute for Bioeconomy, Department of Biology, Agriculture and Food Sciences, National Research Council (CNR), Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
- 2Istituto di Ricerca sugli Ecosistemi Terrestri Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Sede secondaria di Firenze, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy
- 3Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
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The cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803 is a promising candidate for sustainable hydrogen production due to its ability to generate hydrogen under fermentative conditions. This study investigates the impact of marine salt (35 g L⁻¹) supplementation in BG11 medium on the growth, biochemical composition, and hydrogen production of Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Cultures were subjected to a three-phase experimental design consisting of growth, nitrogen starvation, and dark fermentation. Marine salt supplementation did not influence growth rate during the initial phase and did not hinder biomass accumulation under nitrogen-deprived conditions. Biochemical analyses revealed that marine salt did not affect carbohydrate accumulation but decreased polyhydroxybutyrate accumulation, while protein content remained comparable between treatments. Notably, cultures grown in marine salt-supplemented media exhibited moderately enhanced hydrogen production, achieving up to 9.14 ± 0.62 mL g-1 dry weight over four days—slightly higher than in control cultures. Our results indicated that carbohydrates accumulated during the nitrogen starvation phase are only partially utilised for hydrogen production during the subsequent phase of dark fermentation, and that more than 90% of the hydrogen produced occurs within the first 3 days. These findings suggest that marine salt not only supports acceptable growth of Synechocystis but also enhances its hydrogen production potential by improving the sustainability of the process.
Keywords: Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803, Marine salt, Hydrogen production, Nitrogen starvation, darkfermentation, photosynthetic performance, Polyhydroxybutyrate, cyanobacteriophyta
Received: 26 Jun 2025; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Lakatos, Cicchi, Balestra, Pugliese, Touloupakis, Chini Zittelli, Torzillo and Faraloni. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Gergely Ernő Lakatos
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