Photosynthetic modulation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii microalga co-cultured with different strains of the growth-promoting bacterium Azospirillum brasilense during CO2 fixation from biogas
摘要
The capacity of microalgae to capture CO2 by photosynthesis and convert it into bioactive compounds is widely exploited in sectors, such as cosmetics, pharmaceutics, nutrition, environment, and bioenergy. Today, the microalga-Azospirillum consortium is considered a sustainable-biotechnological strategy to enhance microalgal physiological performance during CO2 from biogas valorization in high-value commercial compounds. In the present study the photosynthetic performance of the microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was evaluated associated with different strains of Azospirillum during biogas CO2 fixation using non-intrusive pulse-amplitude modulated chlorophyll a fluorometry. The results demonstrated that this microalga co-cultured with the bacterium Azospirillum brasilense Cd positively modulated its photosynthetic activity allowing a sustained metabolic activity under the stressful biogas composition, increasing its CO2 fixation rate (0.18 g L-1 day-1), biomass productivity (0.065 g L-1 day-1), and high-valuable metabolites production. A finely tuned physiological interaction was highlighted, wherein the bacterial partner modulates algal stress responses and metabolic pathways, enhancing photosynthetic efficiency and tolerance to CO₂ fluctuations. Overall, these findings can lay the biological and engineered foundation for developing and scaling up microalgal bioprocesses to valorize CO2 from biogas, as well as gaseous emissions from different industries, contributing to climate change effects mitigation and positively influencing circular bio-economy.
Graphical Abstract