Cultivation conditions affect the monosaccharide composition in Ulva fenestrata
Journal article, 2020

In recent years, the interest in using seaweed for the sustainable production of commodities has been increasing as seaweeds contain many potentially worthwhile compounds. Thus, the extraction and refining processes of interesting compounds from seaweeds is a hot research topic but has been found to have problems with profitability for novel applications. To increase the economic potential of refining seaweed biomass, the content of the compounds of interest should be maximized, which can potentially be achieved through optimization of cultivation conditions. In this study, we studied how the monosaccharide composition of the green seaweed species Ulva fenestrata is influenced by the abiotic factors; irradiance, temperature, nitrate, phosphate, and pCO2. It was evident that lower nitrate concentration and cultivation at elevated temperature increased monosaccharide contents. A 70% increase in iduronic acid and a 26% increase in rhamnose content were seen under elevated irradiance and temperature conditions, though the absolute differences in monosaccharide concentration were small. Irradiance and nitrate impacted the ratio between iduronic and rhamnose, which is an indicator of the ulvan structure. These results could potentially be utilized to coax the ulvan towards specific bioactivities, and thus have a considerable impact on a potential biorefinery centered around Ulva. © 2020, The Author(s).

Monosaccharides composition

Cultivation

Ulvan

Abiotic growth factors

Ulva fenestrata

Author

Joakim Olsson

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology

Gunilla B. Toth

University of Gothenburg

Annelous Oerbekke

University of Gothenburg

Suzana Cvijetinovic

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology

Niklas Wahlström

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Hanna Harrysson

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Food and Nutrition Science

Sophie Steinhagen

University of Gothenburg

Alexandra Kinnby

University of Gothenburg

Joel White

University of Gothenburg

Ulrica Edlund

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

Ingrid Undeland

Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Food and Nutrition Science

Henrik Pavia

University of Gothenburg

Eva Albers

Utbildningsstöd

Journal of Applied Phycology

0921-8971 (ISSN) 1573-5176 (eISSN)

Vol. 32 5 3255-3263

Seaweed production systems with high value applications (Sweaweed)

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (RBP14-0045), 2015-01-01 -- 2019-12-31.

Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SSF) (RBP14-0045), 2021-01-01 -- 2021-12-31.

Subject Categories

Chemical Process Engineering

Other Chemical Engineering

Bioenergy

DOI

10.1007/s10811-020-02138-9

More information

Latest update

11/5/2020