Effect of Some Phytohormones on Growth Characteristics of Chlorella sorokiniana IAM-C212 under Photoautotrophic Conditions

The effects of some phytohormones [indole acetic acid (IAA), indole butyric acid (IBA), gibelleric acid (GA3), and kinetin] on cell dry weight, cell number, cell size, protein and chlorophyll contents of Chlorella sorokiniana IAM-C212 were investigated under photoautotrophic conditions. Treatment with IAA (15 mg/l) and IBA (15 mg/l) resulted in significantly higher dry cell weight and cell number than the control (P < 0.05) but there were no significant effects of GA3 and kinetin on cell growth as expressed by dry cell concentration (g/l) and cell population (cells/ml). Treatment with IAA at a concentration of 10 or 15 mg/l gave the highest cell dry concentration of 4.68 g/l after eight days of cultivation, which is more than 9 times higher than the value obtained in the control culture (without phytohormone). The optimum concentration of each of the phytohormones for C. sorokiniana cell enlargement was 20 mg/l. At this concentration, the average cell sizes were 81.07, 78.67, 78.07, 66.90 and 68.1 μm for GA3, kinetin, IAA, IBA and control, respectively. Addition of 15 mg/l of IAA or GA3 to the culture resulted in significantly higher extractable chlorophyll contents than the control (P < 0.05) but the effects of IBA and kinetin were not significant (P > 0.05). The protein contents of the cells cultivated with 20 or 10 mg/l of GA3, 15 mg/l of kinetin, and 15 mg/l of IBA or IAA were 46.64, 45.83 and 45.81%, respectively. In the control experiment, the protein content was 43.38% after eight days of cultivation, showing that treatment with these phytohormones had no significant effect on the protein contents of the cells (P > 0.05). Combination of IBA and GA3 exhibited synergistic effect on growth and productivity of C. sorokiniana but there was no synergistic effect when IAA was combined with either GA3 or kinetin.Keywords: Phytohormones, Chlorella sorokiniana, Cell Growth, Cell Size, Protein Content, Chlorophyll Conten