Carotenoid profile in Prochlorococcus sp. and enrichment of lutein using different nitrogen sources

Abstract

Various carotenoids of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus sp. are identified using chromatographic/spectroscopic techniques and quantified using HPLC-DAD. In the present study, β-apo-8′-carotenal was used as internal standard. Identification of carotenoids was carried out by comparing the retention time, absorption spectra, and mass spectra of unknown peaks with reference standards. All-trans-lutein was found to be the major carotenoid in this cyanobacterium, and, therefore, algal productivity and the potential for lutein accumulation were analyzed as a function of different nitrogen sources such as nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, and urea for cultivation. Among them, urea clearly led to the best lutein accumulation. According to the experimental evidence, lutein increased from 2.54 to 3.34 mg g−1 in the cyanobacteria when urea was used as the nitrogen source. © 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.