Diversity of carotenogenic microalgae in the White Sea polar region

Abstract

Carotenogenic microalgae are unicellular photosynthetic organisms with the ability to accumulate carotenoids. Carotenoid accumulation is a protective reaction against environmental stress factors, such as bright light, extreme temperatures, etc. It makes the survival of these microorganisms under harsh environmental conditions possible. The diversity of carotenogenic microalgae has been described in detail for Central Europe and North America, as well as for tropical and subtropical latitudes with relatively favorable environmes. However, data about these microorganisms in polar and subpolar latitudes is scarce and restricted to few reports. We isolated several strains of carotenogenic microalgae from the coastal zone of the White Sea, where they were abundant. The obtained microalgae related to four species of Chlorophytes: Haematococcus lacustris, H. rubicundus, Coelastrella aeroterrestrica, and Bracteacoccus aggregatus. The last three species have been reported for polar latitudes for the first time. Most likely, carotenogenic algae in the White Sea coast are abundant due to their high physiological and metabolic plasticity, which is essential for surviving under adverse conditions of the northern regions. Pigment composition of the strains is provided. Their predominant carotenoids were astaxanthin and β-carotene. Further, the obtained strains may be considered as potential producers of natural pigments for biotechnology.

Altitudinal Zonation of Green Algae Biodiversity in the French Alps

“…With optimal elevation higher than 2,500, species include Planophila laetevirens (previously detected in various locations in the Alps as well as high latitudes; Schmidt and Darcy, 2015 ), Bracteococcus ruber (recently detected in alpine mountains in New Zealand; Novis and Visnovsky, 2012 ) and Spongiochloris spongiosa . Taxa known to accumulate high levels of carotenoids, such as Chromochloris zofingiensis ( Ye and Huang, 2020 ), Sanguina ( Procházková et al, 2019 ), or Bracteacoccus ( Chekanov et al, 2020 ) species were also found at high altitudes. Interestingly, in one occurrence at ∼3,000 m, Bracteacoccus aerius was detected.…”

Raman Spectroscopy and Its Modifications Applied to Biological and Medical Research

“…It is also believed that carotenogenic microalgae can survive in a wide range of environmental conditions [136]. Nowadays, the analysis of carotenoids in algae is performed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).…”

The Dynamics of the Bacterial Community of the Photobioreactor-Cultivated Green Microalga Haematococcus lacustris during Stress-Induced Astaxanthin Accumulation

“…Three laboratory cultures (LC-I, LC-II, LC-III) of previously identified H. lacustris strains BMP/16, BMK/16 and BMM1/16 [34] were taken as a control for the principal component analysis (PCA,) ( Table 1). A detailed description of their bacterial composition has been given previously [26].…”

“…In the χ ij -based three-component space, NGS reads datasets of the samples from H. lacustris bacterial communities were broken up into several clusters ( Figure 3B,C). The datasets of the samples from the H. lacustris culture under the vegetative growth conditions in a photobioreactor clustered with control laboratory cultures from [34] on the projection of the principal components' space to the cross-section of the 1st and 2nd components ( Figure 3B). On the projection on the plane of the 2nd and 3rd components it was located separately ( Figure 3C).…”