Improvement of Omega-3-rich Microalgae Biomass Production to Support Qatar Food Security

Abstract

Recently, algae have received considerable interest as one of the most promising feedstocks suitable for animal feed production due to their fast growth, less nutrients requirements and their ability to produce primary and secondary metabolites with high-added value. Different strategies were applied to improve both biomass and metabolites productivities aiming to produce high-quality biomass with low cost and high nutritional value. Tetraselmis subcoliformis QUCCCM50, a local marine green alga presenting fast growth, high metabolites content and easy to harvest, was selected as a candidate for feed production. Three different stress conditions were applied to enhance its potential to produce high-value products such as Nitrogen or Phosphorus depletion and high salinity of 100ppt. An assessment of the growth properties and biomass productivity was performed during the growth. After 15 days of cultivation using tubular photobioreactors, the biomass was subjected to metabolites characterization and Fatty Acids Methyl Ester profiling. Results showed that the three stress conditions present different impacts on biomass productivity and, lipid quantity and quality. Cultivation under 100 ppt led to the highest increase in lipid content. This culture condition led to 25% increase of the omega-3 fatty acids with the appearance of the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and a remarkable increase of the alpha-linolenic acid, comparatively to the control. The enrichment of the Tetraselmis subcoliformis' biomass in terms of omega-3 fatty acids enhanced its nutritional value and make it very suitable for animal feed production. The optimized culture conditions obtained from the current study will be applied at large scale to enhance the quality of the biomass towards omega-3 enriched animal feed supplement production, hence support achieving food security in the State of Qatar.