Dynamics of triacylglycerol and EPA production in Phaeodactylum tricornutum under nitrogen starvation at different light intensities

Lipid production in microalgae is highly dependent on the applied light intensity. However, for the EPA producing model-diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum, clear consensus on the impact of incident light intensity on lipid productivity is still lacking. This study quantifies the impact of different incident light intensities on the biomass, TAG and EPA yield on light in nitrogen starved batch cultures of P. tricornutum. The maximum biomass concentration and maximum TAG and EPA contents were found to be independent of the applied light intensity. The lipid yield on light was reduced at elevated light intensities (>100 μmol m-2 s-1). The highest TAG yield on light (112 mg TAG molph-1) was found at the lowest light intensity tested (60 μmol m-2 s-1), which is still relatively low to values reported in literature for other algae. Furthermore, mass balance analysis showed that the EPA fraction in TAG may originate from photosynthetic membrane lipids.