Abstract
The of indoleacetic acid, indolebutyric acid, gibberellic acid and kinetin on growth and biomass productivity of Chlorella sorokiniana and Spirulina platensis were investigated.
The optimum concentration of the phytohormones for Chlorella sorokiniana cell enlargement was 20ppm for GA3, Kinetin, IAA, and IBA.
At this concentration, the Chlorella cell sizes were 81.07µm, 78.67μm, 78 .07μm and 66.90μm respectively. The effectiveness of the phytohormones in increasing the size of the cells can be ranked as GA3 > kinetin > IAA > IBA.
Treatment with IAA at concentration of 10ppm had the highest effect on Chlorella sorokiniana cell number with a value of 7.94x 109 cells/ml, followed by IBA at 15ppm with a value of 4.36 x 109 cells/ml. GA3 and kinetin had no significant effects (P< 0.05) on cell number.
The effects of the phytohormones on dry cell weight of the two microalgae species followed the same trend as the cell number with 10ppm of IAA giving the highest value of 4.825g/l in Chlorella sorokiniana and 1.10g/l in Spirulina platensis.
The concentrations of the for Chlorella chlorophyll were 15ppm for IAA, GA3, IBA and kinetin.
At these , the values of extractable chlorophyll were 594.20 mg/g, 238.60 mg/g, 141.65 mg/g and 140.90 mg/g respectively.
Introduction
1.1 Background of Study
There are numerous applications for microalgae and microalgal derived valued- added products, including, pharmaceuticals, biomedicals, diagnostics, cosmetics, aquaculture, food and animal feeds (Borowitzka, 1997).
With increasing interest in environmental policy, global oil price increase and climate change, the potential for microalgal biofuel production is also of commercial and environmental interest (Butler, N., 2006).
In view of this, judicious exploitation of microalgal cultivation biotechnology for enhanced biomass productivity to meet up with the demand for provision of nutraceutical, pharmaceutical and environmental benefits is technically and economically viable and imperative.
In recent years, metabolic engineering and application of synthetic biology to potentially enhance living systems especially microbes for use in medicine, agriculture, industry and bioremediation have gained considerable attention.
Genetic manipulation which invariably leads to inheritable changes in a species might bring about adverse developmental changes in the ecosystem when used for environmental and agricultural applications (Hunt et al., 2009).
Alternative means such as phytohormones and micronutrients have been used to improve productivities in higher plants since the 1930s (Piotrowska et al., 2008).
References
Apt, K.E., and Brehens, P.W. (1999). Commercial development in microalgal biotechnology, Journal of Phycology 35: 215-266
Basu, S, Sun., H Brian, L, Quatrano, R, L., and Muday, G.K.N. Early Embryo Development in Fueus distichusin Auxin sensitive. Plant Physiology 130: 292-302.
Becker EW (2007) Micro-algae as a source of protein. Biotechnology Advances 25(2):207–210.
Borowitzka, M. (1999). Commercial production of microalgea: ponds, tanks, tubes and fermenters. Journal of Biotechnology 70 (1-3): 313-321.
Butler, N. (2006). The transition from fossil fuels, Sustainable Energy, Cambridge Energy Forum.
Chen G-Q., Chen, F. (2006) Growing phototrophic cells without light. Biotechnology letters 28(9): 607-616.
Be the first to comment