The regulating mechanisms of CO2 fixation and carbon allocations of two Chlorella sp. strains in response to high CO2 levels

The extreme high CO2 in industrial exhaust gas cannot be tolerated by microalgae is the key challenge for the application of microalgae in CO2 bio-sequestration. To provide better insights for this challenge, we chose one high CO2 tolerant (Chlorella sp. LAMB 31) and non-tolerant (Chlorella sp. LAMB 122) Chlorella sp. to examine their different CO2 fixation and carbon allocation responses to 40% CO2. The results indicated LAMB 31 had a 24-h "lag phase" of biomass increase, during which the transition from PSIIePSI and the increase of lipid synthesis happened to acclimate high CO2 conditions, followed by the increase of pigments synthesis, carbon fixation rates and polysaccharide productions. However, no acclimating mechanism was observed in LAMB 122, whose biomass, photosynthesis and material synthesis were all gradually collapsed under 40% CO2. Finally, four parameters including Chl a, polysaccharides, carbon fixation rates and MDA were selected to be good physiological biomarkers for high CO2 tolerant strains screenings in the future. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.