title: Comparison of screening methods for high-throughput determination of oil yields in micro-algal biofuel strains.
abstract: The phenotypic and phylogenetic diversity of micro-algae capable of accumulating triacylglycerols provides a challenge for the accurate determination of biotechnological potential. High-yielding strains are needed to improve economic viability and their compositional information is required for optimizing biodiesel properties. To facilitate a high-throughput screening programme, a very rapid direct-derivatization procedure capable of extracting lyophilized material for GC analysis was compared with a scaled-down Folch-based method. This was carried out on ten micro-algal strains from 6 phyla where the more rapid direct-derivatization approach was found to provide a more reliable measure of yield. The modified Folch-based procedure was found to substantially underestimate oil yield in oneChlorellaspecies (P< 0.01). In terms of fatty acid composition however, the Folch procedure proved to be slightly better in recovering polyunsaturated fatty acids, in six out of the ten strains. Therefore, direct-derivatization is recommended for rapid determination of yields in screening approaches but can provide slightly less compositional accuracy than solvent-based extraction methods.
authors.affiliation: Scottish Association for Marine Science, Scottish Marine Institute, Oban, Argyll PA37 1QA UK.
authors.forename: Stephen P
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Slocombe
authors.forename: Qianyi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Kenneth D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Black
authors.forename: John G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: Michele S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Stanley
keywords: Biodiesel; Biofuel; Chlorella; In situ transesterification; Intelligent screening; Lipids