Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.
Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-2: Plant Sciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany.
PLoS One. 2019 Apr 29;14(4):e0216093. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216093. eCollection 2019.
Microalgae are an ubiquitous and powerful driver of geochemical cycles which have formed Earth's biosphere since early in the evolution. Lately, microalgal research has been strongly stimulated by economic potential expected in biofuels, wastewater treatment, and high-value products. Similar to bacteria and other microorganisms, most work so far has been performed on the level of suspensions which typically contain millions of algal cells per millilitre. The thus obtained macroscopic parameters average cells, which may be in various phases of their cell cycle or even, in the case of microbial consortia, cells of different species. This averaging may obscure essential features which may be needed for the correct understanding and interpretation of investigated processes. In contrast to these conventional macroscopic cultivation and measuring tools, microfluidic single-cell cultivation systems represent an excellent alternative to study individual cells or a small number of mutually interacting cells in a well-defined environment. A novel microfluidic photobioreactor was developed and successfully tested by the photoautotrophic cultivation of Chlorella sorokiniana. The reported microbioreactor facilitates automated long-term cultivation of algae with controlled temperature and with an illumination adjustable over a wide range of photon flux densities. Chemical composition of the medium in the microbioreactor can be stabilised or modulated rapidly to study the response of individual cells. Furthermore, the algae are cultivated in one focal plane and separate chambers, enabling single-cell level investigation of over 100 microcolonies in parallel. The developed platform can be used for systematic growth studies, medium screening, species interaction studies, and the thorough investigation of light-dependent growth kinetics.
微藻是地球生物圈形成以来普遍存在且强大的地球化学循环驱动因素。最近，由于生物燃料、废水处理和高价值产品方面的经济潜力，微藻研究受到了强烈的刺激。与细菌和其他微生物类似，迄今为止，大多数工作都是在悬浮液水平上进行的，悬浮液中每毫升通常含有数百万个藻类细胞。因此获得的宏观参数平均细胞，这些细胞可能处于细胞周期的不同阶段，甚至在微生物群落的情况下，是不同物种的细胞。这种平均化可能会掩盖正确理解和解释所研究过程所需的基本特征。与这些常规的宏观培养和测量工具相比，微流控单细胞培养系统是研究单个细胞或少量相互作用的细胞在明确定义的环境中的极好替代方法。开发了一种新型微流控光生物反应器，并通过 Chlorella sorokiniana 的光自养培养成功进行了测试。所报道的微生物反应器有利于在可控制的温度和可在宽范围的光子通量密度下进行自动长期藻类培养，并具有可调节的光照。微生物反应器中的培养基化学成分可以快速稳定或调节，以研究单个细胞的响应。此外，藻类在一个焦平面和单独的腔室中培养，能够并行对超过 100 个微菌落进行单细胞水平的研究。开发的平台可用于系统的生长研究、培养基筛选、物种相互作用研究以及对光依赖性生长动力学的深入研究。
