Biotechnology Letters, Vol.39, No.1, 85-90, 2017
Low temperature and Daphnia-associated infochemicals promote colony formation of Scenedesmus obliquus and its harvesting
To explore the combined effects of temperature and Daphnia-associated infochemicals on colony formation of Scenedesmus obliquus to faciliate harvesting the algal biomass. A three-parameter modified Gaussian model fitted the changes of the number of cells per particle in S. obliquus induced by Daphnia culture filtrate well under any temperature. Decreases in temperature enhanced the induced-colony formation of Scenedesmus. The maximum colony size at 15-25 A degrees C was significantly larger than those at 30-35 A degrees C. An additional 1 or 2 days at low temperature was needed to reach the maximum colony size, which indicates the best harvest time for algal biomass. Induced-colony formation of Scenedesmus by Daphnia culture filtrate at 15-25 A degrees C is recommended to settle algal cells. This condition facilitates harvesting the biomass.