title: Rapid screening astaxanthin-hyperproducing Haematococcus pluvialis mutants through near-infrared spectroscopy.
abstract: The unicellular freshwater green microalga Haematococcus pluvialis is the richest source of natural astaxanthin. Since accumulation of astaxanthin differs significantly among various algal strains at different stages, it is therefore critical to develop an effective high-throughput assay for rapid screening astaxanthin-hyperproducing strains. In the present study, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in combination with biochemical assay was employed for evaluation of the wide-type H. Pluvialis strains. The partial least squares (PLS) models of total biomass, astaxanthin content and astaxanthin expressed as a percentage of dry weight (DW) were developed with the R(2) values as 0·959, 0·982 and 0·952, the prediction correlation factor (r) values as 0·979, 0·988 and 0·966, and the residual predictive deviation (RPD) values as 4·88, 6·22 and 3·86, respectively. Furthermore, the PLS models were employed to evaluate H. pluvialis mutants, with the r values as 0·973, 0·983 and 0·976, and the RPD values as 3·45, 7·59 and 4·07, respectively. This work thus demonstrates that NIRS is an easy, fast and non-invasive approach that can be applied in high-throughput screening of astaxanthin-hyperproducing algal mutants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Haematococcus pluvialis has potential application for its ability to accumulate natural antioxidant astaxanthin. In this study, we initiated the application of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in the analysis of total biomass and astaxanthin content of different mutant strains, demonstrating that NIRS can be very useful in the screening of axataxanthin-hyperproducing mutant strains.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.|School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Ion Beam Bioengineering, Institute of Technical Biology and Agriculture Engineering, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui Province, China.|School of Life Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.|School of Nuclear Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000975:Antioxidants / Q000378:metabolism; D018533:Biomass; D000460:Chlorophyta / Q000378:metabolism*; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D024341:Xanthophylls / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000975:Antioxidants; D024341:Xanthophylls; C005948:astaxanthine
keywords: Haematococcus pluvialis; astaxanthin; high-throughput screening; mutants; near-infrared spectroscopy