title: Eukaryotic and prokaryotic microbial communities during microalgal biomass production.
abstract: Eukaryotic and bacterial communities were characterized and quantified in microalgal photobioreactor cultures of freshwater Chlorella vulgaris and marine Dunaliella tertiolecta. The microalgae exhibited good growth, whilst both cultures contained diverse bacterial communities. Both cultures included Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes, while C. vulgaris cultures also contained Actinobacteria. The bacterial genera present in the cultures were different due to different growth medium salinities and possibly different extracellular products. Bacterial community profiles were relatively stable in D. tertiolecta cultures but not in C. vulgaris cultures likely due to presence of ciliates (Colpoda sp.) in the latter. The presence of ciliates did not, however, cause decrease in total number of C. vulgaris or bacteria during 14 days of cultivation. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) reliably showed relative microalgal and bacterial cell numbers in the batch cultures with stable microbial communities, but was not effective when bacterial communities varied. Raw culture samples were successfully used as qPCR templates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Bioengineering, Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland. aino-maija.lakaniemi@tut.fi
authors.forename: Aino-Maija
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Lakaniemi
authors.forename: Chris J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Hulatt
authors.forename: Kathryn D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wakeman
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Jaakko A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Puhakka
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D005057:Eukaryotic Cells; D058086:Microalgae / Q000378:metabolism*; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011387:Prokaryotic Cells