Early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae cultures

Event Abstract Back to Event Early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae cultures Cláudia Lopes1, Marco A. Simões1, Cátia Costa1*, Patricia Ricardo1 and Americo Rodrigues1 1 Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (IPLeiria), Portugal Microalgae are used in many different sectors like food industry (human and animal), biofuel production and secondary metabolites production. In the last years, due to an increased demand of microalgae, there was a huge effort in the study of efficiency systems for large scale production leading to the development of very large photobioreactors. In these systems, microbial contamination is one of the main cause of biomass loss, frequently resulting in the total culture loss. Efficient treatment is frequently difficult because when symptoms become visible the destructive effects are often irreversible. Traditional detection methods are very time consuming, making them inadequate for the early detection of microbial contamination. An interesting alternative is the use of molecular methodologies. The aim of this work was to study the efficiency of a PCR based protocol in the early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae detection using a chlorella culture as a model. Samples were taken from chlorella cultures without any visible sign of contamination. DNA was extracted using a commercial kit or by cell disruption using glass beads followed by a phenol chloroform extraction. An in silico analysis of the universal primers, previously described in the literature, for detection of microorganisms was performed. Primers presenting high sequence divergence with the corresponding region of chlorella genome were selected. The results obtained indicate that a PCR approach is very efficient in the early detection of microbial contaminants, allowing their detections several days before the appearance of visible symptoms. In addition, sequencing of the PCR products obtained from contaminated cultures allowed the identification of the contaminating organism, which might be important in defining the correct control measures. Keywords: Microbial contamination, PCR, Microalgae, Chlorella, Algae culture Conference: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018, Peniche, Portugal, 5 Jul - 6 Jul, 2018. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Blue Biotech Citation: Lopes C, Simões MA, Costa C, Ricardo P and Rodrigues A (2019). Early detection of microbial contamination in microalgae cultures. Front. Mar. Sci. Conference Abstract: IMMR'18 | International Meeting on Marine Research 2018. doi: 10.3389/conf.FMARS.2018.06.00044 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 26 Apr 2018; Published Online: 07 Jan 2019. * Correspondence: Dr. Cátia Costa, Centro de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente (IPLeiria), Peniche, Portugal, catiafilipaverissimo@gmail.com Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cláudia Lopes Marco A Simões Cátia Costa Patricia Ricardo Americo Rodrigues Google Cláudia Lopes Marco A Simões Cátia Costa Patricia Ricardo Americo Rodrigues Google Scholar Cláudia Lopes Marco A Simões Cátia Costa Patricia Ricardo Americo Rodrigues PubMed Cláudia Lopes Marco A Simões Cátia Costa Patricia Ricardo Americo Rodrigues Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.