Commercial Potential of the Cyanobacterium Arthrospira maxima: Physiological and Biochemical Traits and the Purification of Phycocyanin

Jihae Park; Hojun Lee; Thai Binh Dinh; Soyeon Choi; Jonas De Saeger; Stephen Depuydt; Murray T Brown; Taejun Han

doi:10.3390/biology11050628

Commercial Potential of the Cyanobacterium Arthrospira maxima: Physiological and Biochemical Traits and the Purification of Phycocyanin

Biology (Basel). 2022 Apr 20;11(5):628. doi: 10.3390/biology11050628.

Authors

Jihae Park^{1

2}, Hojun Lee¹, Thai Binh Dinh³, Soyeon Choi⁴, Jonas De Saeger⁵, Stephen Depuydt², Murray T Brown⁶, Taejun Han^{1

4

7}

Affiliations

¹ Development & Planning Office, Ghent University Global Campus, 119-5, Songdomunhwa-ro, Incheon 21985, Korea.
² Laboratory of Plant Growth Analysis, Ghent University Global Campus, 119-5, Songdomunhwa-ro, Incheon 21985, Korea.
³ Department of Cosmetic Science and Management, Incheon National University, 119, Academy-ro, Incheon 22012, Korea.
⁴ Department of Marine Science, Incheon National University, 119, Academy-ro, Incheon 22012, Korea.
⁵ Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Ghent University, Technologiepark 71, 9052 Ghent, Belgium.
⁶ School of Marine Science & Engineering, Plymouth University, Plymouth PL4 8AA, Devon, UK.
⁷ Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology, Ghent University, Coupure Links 653-Block F, 9000 Ghent, Belgium.

Abstract

Arthrospira maxima is a natural source of fine chemicals for multiple biotechnological applications. We determined the optimal environmental conditions for A. maxima by measuring its relative growth rate (RGR), pigment yield, and photosynthetic performance under different pH and temperature conditions. RGR was highest at pH 7-9 and 30 °C. Chlorophyll a, phycocyanin, maximal quantum yield (F_v/F_m), relative maximal electron transport rate (rETR_max), and effective quantum yield (Φ_PSII) were highest at pH 7-8 and 25 °C. Interestingly, phycoerythrin and allophycocyanin content was highest at 15 °C, which may be the lowest optimum temperature reported for phycobiliprotein production in the Arthrospira species. A threestep purification of phycocyanin (PC) by ultrafiltration, ion-exchange chromatography, and gel filtration resulted in a 97.6% purity of PC.

Keywords: Arthrospira maxima; pH; photosynthetic performance; phycocyanin; temperature.