Screening method for lipid-content microalgae based on sulfo-phospho-vanillin reaction

摘要

Studies that address the use of microalgae as biofuels often require the frequent measurement of total lipid content. Traditional methods for the quantification of lipid are time-consuming or involve the use of expensive analytical equipment that is not available in many labs. Here we investigated microalgal culture as the starting material and simple, colorimetric method for quantitative measurement of neutral lipids in microalgae with a relatively high correlation coefficient (R~2=0.9038) between gravimetric and spectrophotometric quantification. Linear responses for triolein, vegetable oil and microalgal oil in a concentration range between 0.1 and 1 mg/l were observed. Using this method, Monoraphidium pusillum were screened out of several microalgal strains with the highest lipid content (25.52% dry weight). The color reaction for quantitation of microalgal lipids has significant advantages over traditional methods for screening of high lipid-content strains. Our data implied that the sensitivity and versatility enable this method a useful tool in screening of lipid-content microalgae.