title: Continual production of glycerol from carbon dioxide by Dunaliella tertiolecta.
abstract: Microalgae have high photosynthetic efficiencies and produce many valuable compounds from carbon dioxide. The Dunaliella genus accumulates glycerol, yet no commercial process currently exists for glycerol production from this microalga. Here it was found that in addition to intracellular accumulation, Dunaliella tertiolecta also releases glycerol into the external medium continuously, forming a large and stable carbon pool. The process is not affected by nutrient starvation or onset of cell death. Carbon dioxide was fixed at a constant rate, the bulk of it being channelled to extracellular glycerol (82%), resulting in enhanced photosynthetic carbon assimilation of 5 times that used for biomass production. The final extracellular glycerol concentration was 34 times the maximum concentration of intracellular glycerol; the latter declined further during cell death. Findings from this work will assist in the development of a bioconversion process to produce glycerol using D. tertiolecta without the need for cell harvest or disruption.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. yvonne_chow@ices.a-star.edu.sg
authors.forename: Yvonne Y S
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Chow
authors.forename: Serena J M
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Goh
authors.forename: Ziheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Su
authors.forename: Daphne H P
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Chan Yuen
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Natalie Y N
authors.initials: NY
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Huixin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Yuan Kun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000378:metabolism; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000378:metabolism*; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism; D005990:Glycerol / Q000378:metabolism*; D007700:Kinetics; D058086:Microalgae / Q000166:cytology / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D002244:Carbon; D005990:Glycerol