Lutein production with wild-type and mutant strains of Chlorella sorokiniana MB-1 under mixotrophic growth

Lutein is a type of xanthophyll found in the macular region of eye, helps in reducing the risk of age related macular degeneration (AMD). In this study, lutein production from the wild type Chlorella sorokiniana MB-1 and the mutants generated by random mutagenesis were tested for their lutein productivity. The wild-type strain of C. sorokiniana MB-1 obtained the highest lutein productivity and lutein content of 2.39 mg/L/day and 5.86 mg/g, respectively, when 6.0 g/L sodium acetate was used as the organic carbon source in mixotrophic cultivation. Under the same conditions, mutant strain MB-1-M12 had better lutein production performance than that of the wild-type strain, exhibiting a lutein content and productivity of 7.52 mg/g and 3.63 mg/L/day, respectively. Outdoor cultivation of mutant strain MB-1-M12 obtained a slightly lower lutein content of 6.85 mg/g but a markedly lower productivity of 1.35 mg/L/day when compared to the indoor culture operated under well-controlled conditions with whole-day illumination. The satisfactory lutein production performance from outdoor culture of MB-1-M12 strain demonstrates the potential in commercial production of lutein using the mutant strain. (C) 2017 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.