7 research outputs found
Bioremediation of Crude Oil by Haematococcus Pluvialis: A Preliminary Study
Nowadays, oil pollution is one of the main environmental problems. The current methods for recovering spills mainly involve chemical agents, but scientific research has focused on more natural and less harmful techniques for the environment, including a consortium of bacteria and microalgae to clean up water contaminated by hydrocarbons. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the ability of a microalga belonging to Chlorophyceae to grow in the presence of crude oil and remove the principal contaminants. H. pluvialis, which is usually used for nutraceutical purposes, thanks to the production of astaxanthin, was able to grow in anaerobic conditions, varying its metabolism from autotrophic to heterotrophic, exploiting the carbon present in the solution deriving from the presence of 1% of crude oil. Furthermore, the results of bioremediation showed a relevant reduction in chemical pollutants such as nitrate, fluoride, sulfate, and phosphate. The most important aspect of the study was the reduction after 160 days in the hydrocarbon concentration inside not only the culture medium (−32%) but also the algal biomass (−80.25%), demonstrating an optimized degradation rather than a simple absorption inside the alga
Genetic Improvement to Obtain Specialized Haematococcus pluvialis Genotypes for the Production of Carotenoids, with Particular Reference to Astaxanthin
Nowadays, the search for natural substances with a high nutraceutical effect positively
impact the world market. Among the most attractive macromolecules are antioxidants, capable
of preventing the development of various pathologies. Astaxanthin (ASX) is antioxidant molecule
produced by the microalga H. pluvialis as a response to different types of stress. Usually, astaxanthin
production involves the first phase of accumulation of the biomass of H. pluvialis (green phase), which
is then stressed to stimulate the biosynthesis and accumulation of ASX (red phase). In this study,
the H. pluvialis wild-type strain was subjected to random mutagenesis by UV. Among the different
mutant strains obtained, only two showed interesting bio-functional characteristics, such as a good
growth rate. The results demonstrated that the HM1010 mutant not only has a higher growth trend
than the WT mutant but accumulates and produces ASX even in the green phase. This innovative
genotype would guarantee the continuous production of ASX, not linked to the two-step process and
the uniqueness of the product obtained
Bioremediation of Crude Oil by Haematococcus Pluvialis: A Preliminary Study
Nowadays, oil pollution is one of the main environmental problems. The current methods for recovering spills mainly involve chemical agents, but scientific research has focused on more natural and less harmful techniques for the environment, including a consortium of bacteria and microalgae to clean up water contaminated by hydrocarbons. The purpose of this preliminary study was to evaluate the ability of a microalga belonging to Chlorophyceae to grow in the presence of crude oil and remove the principal contaminants. H. pluvialis, which is usually used for nutraceutical purposes, thanks to the production of astaxanthin, was able to grow in anaerobic conditions, varying its metabolism from autotrophic to heterotrophic, exploiting the carbon present in the solution deriving from the presence of 1% of crude oil. Furthermore, the results of bioremediation showed a relevant reduction in chemical pollutants such as nitrate, fluoride, sulfate, and phosphate. The most important aspect of the study was the reduction after 160 days in the hydrocarbon concentration inside not only the culture medium (−32%) but also the algal biomass (−80.25%), demonstrating an optimized degradation rather than a simple absorption inside the alga