Effects of temperature, photosynthetic photon flux density, photoperiod and O2 and CO2 concentrations on growth rates of the symbiotic dinoflagellate, Amphidinium sp.

Symbiotic dinoflagellates of the species Amphidinium are expected to be pharmaceutically useful microalgae because they produce antitumor macrolides. A microalgae production system with a large number of cells at a high density has been developed for the efficient production of macrolide compounds. In the present study, the effects of culture conditions on the cellular growth rate of dinoflagellates were investigated to determine the optimum culture conditions for obtaining high yields of microalgae. Amphidinium species was cultured under conditions with six temperature levels (21–35°C), six levels of photosynthetic photon flux density (15–70 μmol photons m−2 s−1), three levels of CO2 concentration (0.02–0.1%), and three levels of O2 concentration (0.2–21%). The number of cells cultured in a certain volume of solution was monitored microscopically and the cellular growth rate was expressed as the specific growth rate. The maximum specific growth rate was 0.022 h−1 at a temperature of 26°C and O2 concentration of 5%, and the specific growth rate was saturated at a CO2 concentration of 0.05%, a photosynthetic photon flux density of 35 μmol photons m−2 s−1 and a photoperiod of 12 h day−1 upon increasing each environmental parameter. The results demonstrate that Amphidinium species can multiply efficiently under conditions of relatively low light intensity and low O2 concentration.