Science topic
Microalgae - Science topic
A non-taxonomic term for unicellular microscopic algae which are found in both freshwater and marine environments. Some authors consider DIATOMS; CYANOBACTERIA; HAPTOPHYTA; and DINOFLAGELLATES as part of microalgae, even though they are not algae.
Questions related to Microalgae
Most of the articles suggested HPLC for the analysis of mycosporins from microalgae, but due to the need for strain screening, I need a rapid method of extraction and measurement by spectrophotometry.
Hi there. Does anyone know if microalgae (chlorophyta in particular) can use EPS (or polysaccharides) as source of energy? Can you reccomend me any paper where polysaccharides have been used as energy source (with or without success)?
Background of the question -> i'm trying to undersand if algal species in an only-algae consortium may benefit, in terms of energy, from polysaccharides released by other species.
Is it positive or negative relationship?
I am trying to grow microalgae. Between bubbling in air (just air, no concentrated CO2) and shaking, does either of them help grow algae faster? Or do they essentially have any fundamental differences between them?
Also, does anyone have any recommendations for set ups to bubble in air or CO2? (I am in the US)
Thank you!
I got a liquid starter culture of Thalassiosira Weisflogii microalgae. While the starter culture grows indoors. But it does not grow on agar plates using the F2+si medium. I am seeking reasons for its inability to grow on the petri dishes and solutions to this issue.
In D. salina in which beta carotene is accumulated throughout the cells, staining with iodine reagent will cause the whole cell to be stained.
NOTE: These pictures are copyright. No reproduction without written permission from the publisher.


I want to know about the mechanism through which biological nitrogen fixation occurs in photosynthetic green microalgae apart from previously reported bacterial associations. Like in axenic lab conditions ?
I'm looking for recommendations on the best live microalgae to feed Litopeanaeus Vannamei shrimp larvae. Also, if anyone knows the specific Thalassiosira sp. / weisflogii microalgae strain ID that would be suitable, I'd appreciate the information. Thanks in advance for your help!"
when there's a development of harmful algal blooms which produce toxins such as microcystin, anatoxin, saxitoxin which hamper the ecosystem and due to algaecide treatment these toxins are released in the environment and kill many aquatic organisms I want to check what will happen when both toxins and algaecide are exposed to microalgae. Due to eutrophication there's variation in abiotic factors such as light, temperature, nutrients level, Ph etc I want to know the combined effect of these stressors on microalgae used in wastewater treatment.
I am research scholar interested to work on this aspect. Your suggestions will be very much helpful for me to pursue my research work.
Thank you.
Divyadevale.
Dear colleagues and friends
I have encountered a problem with my Microcystis culture. I tried isolating its protein and centrifuging it to collect the biomass. But the biomass won't settle down even after centrifuging at 14,000 rpm for 15 mins. There were always cells floating on the top of the centrifuge tube (I have tried several tube sizes; 15 ml, 5 ml, and 1.5 ml, and several rpm speeds from 9,000 to 14,000). Microcystis may have a gas vesicle so it does not sink. Any ideas about collecting the biomass without breaking the cells?
Thanks
Hi everyone,
I would like to test the effect of some microalgae (as a source of bioactive compounds) on lipid accumulation in 3T3-L1 adipocytes.
My concern is how handle microalgae and treat cells; due to their characteristics, specially as unicelular organisms, microalgae can be added to the incubation media of cells, and it seems that there are not afected after 24 hour treatment with a high dose. However, if there is microalgae cell wall all the bioavtive compounds remain inside them, is ¡n´t it?
I would be very gratfull if you could recommend me if it is better to make a cell disruption and ad this to the incubation media,
or
If it could be better to try an extraction with solvents.
It´s my first time working with microalgae in cell culture, could you help me? any specific protocol?
Thank you in advance
What Causes the green color change? Because Diatoms are produce brown color tint in the tank. Does It lead high mortality rate in shrimp post larvae in larval rearing tank
What causes the Shrimp larval rearing tank culture water turns into GREEN COLOR ? which has (live Thalassiosira weissflogii microalgae& industry standard Probiotic & other growth minerals). Also Vorticella infestation problem occurred it leads to high mortality rate in shrimp early post larval stage. Any suggestion to prevent/ reduce VORTICELLA in larval rearing tank
What percentage of glycerol is suitable for storing microalgae in -80C for long term purposes?
I want to conduct experiments with microalgae biodiesel as a part of my ph.d. please provide the details of microalgae oil supplier details that available in India.
Hi,
Which form of RuBisCo is present in various microalgae? What is its content?
i found the content of dry weight of euglena gracilis under mixtrophic is much higher than than under heterotrophic. almost 2-fold. is that right?or something wrong happened?
Hello phycologists
I was able to isolate about ten isolates of microalgae (cyanobacteria and eukaryotic) from waters polluted by organic matter, the isolation was carried out on BG11 and BBM medium.
The isolates are stored in monoclonal liquid culture, but not axenic, as there is bacterial and fungal contamination.
-my first question: can i go directly to molecular identification without going through morphological identification? "I do not have the expertise for microscopic identification"
-my second question: concerning the molecular identification of microalgae, what are the best primers I can use to identify eukaryotic microalgae and cyanobacteria (could you suggest me some articles).
-My third question: can I run the PCR without having axenic cultures of my isolates, in other words, does the presence of DNA from bacterial and fungal contaminants not influence the PCR results?
Thank you in advance for your answers.
phycological greetings
how the nutrient uptake by microalgae grown in wastewater can be measured? method of nutrient uptake in algal biomass?
I am trying to cultivate fresh water microalgae in BG11 medium but I have difficulties to grow at light intensity 150, it can grow only at 45 μE m−2 s−1.
So, anyone have any idea about I should to do to let it grow at high light intensity?
Hello fellow microalgal researchers. We are looking to set-up a turbidostat system in our laboratory and we are wondering if anyone has recommendations of systems that they are working with?
We have a multicultuvator MC-1000 (PSI) system in our laboratory and are thinking of buying the Turbidostat Module TS 1100 (PSI) that will allow the multicultivator system to maintain turbidostat growth. Does anyone have experience with this system and can comment on its durability, reliability and worth relative to price?
To obtain pure microalgae cultures I have inoculated the water sample on BG-11 and BBM media using spread plate method. I am getting yellow colored colonies on both the media plates. Kindly suggest me some points to avoid contamination in plates.
In order to measure the oxygen evolution of microalgae cells I have been using an Oxytherm chamber. In order to make results comparable, the same cell desnity of cells had been used. As the culture grows, I need to dilute the samples more and more to which I used MilliQ. Is there a risk that the cells could burst at a 50% dilution?
Good day All
I am busy cleaning up the microalgae strain Haematococcus pluvialis isolated from my bird bath outside. I have been battling to get rid of the Paraphysoderma sedebokerense (fungal parasite) on this strain for a very long time. Is there perhaps someone in this community with more experience who can advise me on which specific antibiotics and / or fungicides would be most effective for cleaning H. pluvialis? Your help will be much appreciated.
I am using two microalgae strains (Haematococcus pluvialis and Chlorella zofingiensis) which are well known for production of astaxanthin. but after 15-20 days growth of microalgae in TAP medium the coloration of medium is changed to yellow and after analysis in the HPLC the lutein concentration is high as compared to astaxanthin. Is there any possible reason behind synthesis of lutein?
I want to make a correlation between the optical density and dry weight of Chlorella Vulgaris. I have dried specific different diluted volumes of the culture but don't know how to make this correlation and what will be the unit used in this correlation.
the sample was isolated from polluted river water and cultured in f/2 media according to the European standard. The images are a little bit confusing, so can you help me to id them?
Dear diatomists,
Can someone could say to which Thalassiosira species this diatom belongs? Or it is not a Thalassiosira?
The scale bar is 10 mkm.

I have been engineering E.coli for few years, but this is my first time transforming microalgae.
I am trying to transform C.vulgaris, using agrobacteirum-mediated trasnformation method. I found a research that used Freshwater Culture Medium (FCM) containing Bold’s Basal Medium (BBM) major salts and supplemented with F medium-trace metals and vitamins for agrobacterium-mediated transfromation of C. vulgaris (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-011-0991-0), but I only have BG11 broth in my lab.
Would using BG11 broth significantly affect the transformation efficiency or would it have nothing to do with culture medium?
Thank you.
Recently, we identified our microalgae using 18s rRNA, and the data showed that the isolate was 99% similar to unclassified microalgae with general information on NCBI and no publications.
Our publication is interested in synthesizing NPs using microalgae. Does it necessary to undergo a classification process, or it is enough to publish the isolate and clearly state that these algae are not classified?
Thank you
I am new the Soxhlet extraction, I just need a lab protocol that can help me start the extraction on oils from microalgae. Thank you very much.
Flagellate located in estuarine waters of Ecuador
Greenhouses gases like carbon dioxide, methane,nitrousoxide,CFC,ozone etc. may be reduced by use of hydroelectric,wind energy,biofuel,solar energy ,microalgae etc. to maintain earth temperature not above 1.5 to 2 degree centigrade from the present mean earth tempearture according to IPCC.
I found a published photo where author writes that this is diatom species Hyalosira delicatula. But I have some doubts about such conclusion.
Unfortunatedly I do not have any photographs and the description of Hyalosira delicaula. So, can anyone familiar with the genus Hyalosira confirm or refute this conclusion?

Usually, the morphology of Spirulina is a screw-like coil. However, my strain changed its morphology into a straight form. How does it happen? Can it change back into a screw-like coil shape? Any suggestions or advice?
I collected various samples from the coastal region, which will be the best media to culture the microalgae from that sample under a laboratory scale.
I had grown Chlorella sorokiniana in BG-11 media supplementing with antibiotic and antifungal cocktail. The culture became healthy green in a few hours to pale yellow in a day. Suddenly, in next day, the culture converted its colour from pale yellow to white with some floc-formation and after a day or two colour changed to green again . So what should be the reason of sudden colour changes in the micro-algae culture?
Hello friends. I want to extract rubisco from spirulina microalgae does anyone have a solution? Do you have a proper protocol?
Hello everyone,
I am going to prepare either an alginate or carrageenan hydrogels for immobilization of microalgae. The microalgae will be expected to be retrieved from the hydrogels after finishing cultivation. In that case, hydrogels need to be destabilized/dissolved. Can anyone suggest any chemicals or processes for this ? I found some information about chelating agent like sodium citrate or EDTA as chelating agent for Ca2+ ion in alginate matrix, but not sure any other agents out there are available, especially for K+ ion.
For some reason, I had no choice but to culture my microalgae in the same LAF that was being used for fungal studies as well. Now for obvious reasons I have started getting fungal contamination in my microalgal plates. I have changed the LAF and even on subsequent re-streaking, I am unable to get rid of it. Any suggestions as to how to make the microalgae free from fungal contamination?
This algae invade my culture lately (Chlamydomonas). It will caused the culture to clump and eventually die. This contaminant was motile, with more than 4 flagella observed.

Hello...
Two months ago, I bought pyrocystis fusiformis culture for my research. Unfortunately, no bioluminescence was observed, and the culture seemed to be deficient from the start.
Now I'm trying to buy a Pyrocystis fusiformis culture again and found a lab called PyroFarms, but before I order, I wanted to check if anyone had any past experience with them. or alternatively, if you could name any other trustworthy sources where I could buy a P. fusiformis culture, I would be grateful.
Hello everyone. Hope this question find you well.
I was recently reading about fatty acids because my master thesis is going to be about them and the most of their perspectives, like a review. And a question arose since I read in a book that there are some trans-unsaturated fatty acids found in nature (microalgae, bacteria, plant, etc), I can assume why and their reasons to be, but my question is that if these trans-unsaturated fatty acids can turn in cis fatty acids because some enviromental condition, as a reduction in the environmental stress to which it may have been subjected the sample.
I was searching for some information that can answer my question, but nothing at the moment. I'll appreciate so much your help with this. Thank you!
I found this specie in estuarine waters of Ecuador
Good afternoon, I am working with the production of Chlorella sp. in industrial waste and I would like to know what parameters are the most optimal to evaluate in this industrial waste... If anyone has any information about it, I would appreciate your contribution.
This is Haochen Zhang, a MA design products student from Royal College of Art. And I’m currently working on a project about removing nutrition of flashed dairy manure. After learning some relevant materials, I realized that microalgae is a very effective means of treating wastewater, and I want to design products which can take use of microalgae (Chlorella) to help local rural residents transform the water to new resource. But now I lack of detailed and professional guidance. So I sincerely hope that I can get an opportunity to learn from you, and get more advice about this project.
Here are some questions which have been confusing me so much:
1. Will sterilization influence the effect of chlorella growing? If I want to sterilize the flushed manure water (100% sterilization), how much do I need to heat it to what temperature? And how long should it last? Can a sterile environment be achieved by simple boiling? Will high-temperature heating produce toxic substances in manure?
2. Is it necessary to re-dilution to feed chlorella with flashed manure water? Is it sufficient as a source of nutrition for chlorella? Do I need to add more nutrients? To what extent can the nitrogen and phosphorus in the water body be absorbed by chlorella?
3. What indicators should be paid attention to in the environment of cultivating chlorella? For non-professionals, is it difficult to cultivate chlorella with the water? What is the most suitable container volume for cultivating it?
4. Can the cultivated chlorella be directly used for fertilization (spraying or watering on vegetables)? Does it have a positive effect or additional economic value for agricultural production?
I sincerely hope that I can harvest precious opinions and opportunities to learn from you. Your suggestions must be very valuable to me. I hope with your help, my project can become a good design that has a practical effect on society! If possible, I hope to have more contact with you, thank you very much! !
Despite the high quality of fish-based ingredients in aquafeeds, reported unsustainability caused by their use in aquaculture, have raised global concerns and effort for replacing them.
Among the potential candidates ( insect meal & oil vs plant meal & oil vs microalgae meal & oil : Spirulina , Chlorella, etc. ), which ones have no side effects or don’t generate new environmental impacts ?
Microalgae considered a a noble biomass for production of high value products, food and feed, Pharmaceuticals as well as Biofuels.
How does the F/2 medium help the growth of the Dunallila salina microalgae?
why do we use this medium?
What is the main mechanism of wastewater treatment through microalgae in open ponds and closed cultivation? How does it work when there is no oxygen and carbon dioxide in closed cultivation?
I'd like your advice on Pyrocystis Fusiformis growth. I purchased a culture a month ago and began cultivating it right away. Things, on the other hand, do not appear to be moving forward. There has been no bioluminescence observed yet, and the algae's growth has been poor. The culture was maintained at a pH of 8.2 and a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius with a 12-12 dark/light cycle. Cell counting under a microscope was used to monitor the algae's progress, but because I don't have much experience in the field of microbiology I wasn't sure of my count. I've attached a photo of what I see under the microscope, and I'm not sure if it's algae cells or not.
I'm hoping you could give me some suggestions on how to improve the growth of algae and its bioluminescence.

Hey all !
I am looking for the best method to prepare microalgal slides for TEM characterization, especially as I am working with nanoparticles.
Thanks all in advance :)
I want to know the pro and cons of this production?
Good morning, I have a question and I hope someone can help me. I have as inoculum chlorella vulgaris, with photoperiod of 12/12 hours, shaker agitation up to a volume of 500 mL and agitation provided by fish tank pump for volumes of 1 L and up.
I have observed the formation of a foam on the top of my crops, which I associate to a bacteria producing it but I have not been able to control that, any recommendations?
Also in the upper part of my containers it is forming like a green slime where my microalgae are staying and although I try to homogenize them they do not unite. Could this be associated with



Good morning, someone could help me to decipher what is causing this in my solid media, I planted chlorella vulgaris in plate count medium and in nutrient medium and I observed that some of them became fuchsia with the passing of lso days, could it be some metabolite or some microorganism?

Can I extract carotenoid pigment from microalgae (C. sorokiniana and D. salina) without freeze-drying?
I already searched and read references about drying process that we can use heat-drying method but that wasn't recommended because could cause degradation of carotenoid content. So if I don't have a freeze-dryer, can still extract the pigments from wet biomass?
Hello,
For a project aiming to produce Spirulina production for human use, I am lokking for a pilot scale (around 10 or 20 thousand liter capacity) PBR supplier..
I will appriciate if you suggest a good company producing LED light integrated tubular PBR in Europe or Asia.
thanks alot for your help
I recently published an article "Shining a Light on Wastewater Treatment with Microalgae" doi.org/10.1007/s13369-021-06444-3 https//rdcu.be/cE0C2 and now I would like to prepare a much shorter version of the article for publication in Frontiers for Young Minds. There are no publication charges, and this is probably the best way of communicating with the next generation of scientists. Because the article is intended for younger students the journal limits the length of manuscripts to 1500 words, 3 figures, and 5 references. The scope of the article will be determined by the team that agrees to collaborate on this venture. It is not required that authors are well versed in wastewater treatment, microalgae, or renewable energy. Rather it is only required that you have an interest in these topics and are willing to collaborate.
Can you help?
John Kilbane
We are starting soon an in vivo trial with broilers fed diets supplemented with microalgae and insect full fat larave. We will collect blood samples and I'd like to have your suggestions about the best parameters to be analysed on blood to evaluate the oxidative and metabolic status
I m working on biosafety evaluation of GMO microalgae, can anyone guide me which is better and acceptable method (lyophilisation or simple heat drying) for drying as i am going to use it as feed for fish? Also after harvesting pellet of algae, at what temperature i can store before drying, 4 C or -20 C, and for how long without affecting cell integrity?
My name is Stanley please help me with the name of the microscope that I can use to view the microalgae structure and able to isolate a single strain.
Actually for my thesis bg11 medium sample in scientific shop are unavailable. So for that any alternative to bg11 medium
Photoautotrophic regime is known to be not as productive as photoheterotrophic regime, mainly due to the fact that in photoheterotrophy microalgae has both light and organic carbon availability. Is there a situation where the opposite happens? What could be the possible explanations? I appreciate your thoughts on this.
Hello! I am trying to extract chlorophylls from microalgae, and I would love to ask how can I separate chlorophyll a from chlorophyll b? I want to get each of them separately. Thank you in advance.
I am running a drying model and would like to have the water content of a chlorella vulgaris microalgae, before drying. Thanks. best.
Currently I and my group members was tasked on a project on using carbon dioxide as main feed for microalgae product formation. So, we decided on using Chlorella vulgaris but now we are all stuck on balancing the equation since
1. we failed to properly formulate chlorella vulgaris
2. the pathway we have chosen does not show its by products
Without those 2 we cant do economic potential analysis to see whether its profitable for production. any ideas how we should proceed? we may need to change the microbes we use thus the product and that put us back into square one. btw we are trying to get beta carotene as our main product. and the pathway is chosen from. or have we gone the wrong steps?
I am making kosaric media using artificial seawater in various salinity for microalgae cultivation. At first, I tried to filter the seawater and then add chemicals. After autoclaving, there was some deposits at the bottom of the media. I also tried to autoclave the artificial seawater and media separately, and then let both solutions cooled down and added together in laminar flow. However, once I added the kosaric media into seawater, precipitation was observed and large amount of white crystalline substance at the bottom. Is there any other way to make it?
I want to quantify total carbohydrates in Hemerick media ( a media for microalgae growth). After I added phenol & sulfuric acid the sample becomes totally black. This problem isn't observed with artificial sea water media and the same phenol/sulfuric acid solutions.
Hi everyone. I am measuring carbohydrate content of some microalgae. While I was making the standard curve, I noticed that the cultural media (F2 medium and ESAW medium) can also react to phenol and sulfuric acid, leading to a strong yellow color which affects the final result. Do you have any idea why this happens? And how can I solve the problem? Thanks a lot!
I know that this depends on the rheological factors of the medium, but if you know any, please let me know.
Best Regards,
Roberto Novais
I am conducting an experiment to obtain enhanced antioxidants production in microalgae by implementing a 3x3 full factorials (three factors each at three levels) abiotic stressors. I would like to analyse my data using minitab software or jmp and obtain optimal levels of factor for maximum antioxidant production.
I am a PhD student, working with microalgae,
i have a doubt, can microalgae utilise water soluble cellulose like CMC as carbon source?