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Longitudinal Analysis of Microbiota in Microalga Nannochloropsis salina Cultures

  • Microbiology of Aquatic Systems
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Abstract

Large-scale open microalgae cultivation has tremendous potential to make a significant contribution to replacing petroleum-based fuels with biofuels. Open algal cultures are unavoidably inhabited with a diversity of microbes that live on, influence, and shape the fate of these ecosystems. However, there is little understanding of the resilience and stability of the microbial communities in engineered semicontinuous algal systems. To evaluate the dynamics and resilience of the microbial communities in microalgae biofuel cultures, we conducted a longitudinal study on open systems to compare the temporal profiles of the microbiota from two multigenerational algal cohorts, which include one seeded with the microbiota from an in-house culture and the other exogenously seeded with a natural-occurring consortia of bacterial species harvested from the Pacific Ocean. From these month-long, semicontinuous open microalga Nannochloropsis salina cultures, we sequenced a time-series of 46 samples, yielding 8804 operational taxonomic units derived from 9,160,076 high-quality partial 16S rRNA sequences. We provide quantitative evidence that clearly illustrates the development of microbial community is associated with microbiota ancestry. In addition, N. salina growth phases were linked with distinct changes in microbial phylotypes. Alteromonadeles dominated the community in the N. salina exponential phase whereas Alphaproteobacteria and Flavobacteriia were more prevalent in the stationary phase. We also demonstrate that the N. salina-associated microbial community in open cultures is diverse, resilient, and dynamic in response to environmental perturbations. This knowledge has general implications for developing and testing design principles of cultivated algal systems.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at Sandia National Laboratories, which is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Sandia Corporation, a Lockheed Martin Company, for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under Contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. Additional funding was provided by the US Department of Energy (DOE) Genomic Science Program under contract SCW1039.

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  1. Eizadora T. Yu

    Present address: Institute of Chemistry, National Science Complex, University of the Philippines, Diliman Quezon City, 1101, Philippines

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Systems Biology, Sandia National Laboratories, 7011 East Ave, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA

    Haifeng Geng, Todd W. Lane & Eizadora T. Yu

  2. Department of Biomass Science and Conversion Technology, Sandia National Laboratories, 7011 East Ave, Livermore, CA, 94550, USA

    Kenneth L. Sale & Mary Bao Tran-Gyamfi

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  1. Haifeng Geng
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Correspondence to Todd W. Lane.

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Fig. S1

Rarefaction analysis comparing microbial community of species richness (Chao1) and diversity (Shannon index) in 16S libraries from algal microbiota. Error bars depicted standard deviations during iterative resamplings from each duplicated samples. (JPG 2481 kb)

Fig. S2

A PCA plot based on unweighted Unifrac distance generally, with few exceptions, separates two groups of microbial community. Total ammonia-disturbed samples in passage 2 day 4 were excluded in this case to allow environmental conditions in those samples to be comparable. The origins of samples were indicated by colors (see legend). (JPG 73 kb)

Fig. S3

The comparison of algal growth rate as a function of species richness (a) and as a function of population diversity (b). Algal growth rate was significantly associated with microbial community diversity (P < 0.05). (JPG 1049 kb)

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Geng, H., Sale, K.L., Tran-Gyamfi, M.B. et al. Longitudinal Analysis of Microbiota in Microalga Nannochloropsis salina Cultures. Microb Ecol 72, 14–24 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-016-0746-4

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