Analysis of growth and lipid production characteristics of Chlorella vulgaris in artificially constructed consortia with symbiotic bacteria

The aim was to study the effect of artificially constructed consortia of microalgae-bacterial symbionts on growth and lipid production by Chlorella vulgaris (C. vulgaris), as well as the inter-relationship between microalgae and bacterial in a photoautotrophic system. The results showed that compared to an axenic culture of C. vulgaris, H1 co-culture system (axenic C. vulgaris-Stenotrophomona smaltophilia) had the strongest effect on the C. vulgaris growth. The biomass, specific growth rate and maximum productivity of C. vulgaris were increased by 21.9, 20.4, and 18%, respectively. The bacteria in co-culture system had a significant effect on the accumulation of lipid and fatty acid components of C. vulgaris: the content of lipid was increased by 8.2-33.83%, and the components of the saturated fatty acids and oleic acids also had an obvious improvement. The results indicate that the microalgae-bacterial co-culture system can improve microalgal biomass and the quality of biodiesel.