Publications

Molecular diagnostic solutions in algal cultivation systems

Carney, Laura T.; McBride, Robert C.; Smith, Val H.; Lane, Todd L.

One of the major challenges to achieving high rates of long-term production in microalgal mass cultures is the elimination or reduction of the impact of biocontamination and culture losses (i.e., crashes) in production systems. Although there are both biotic and abiotic root causes of mass culture crashes, infection by deleterious organisms is the most important and least understood. In general, the diversity of pathogens, parasites, predators, and competing algal species (or weed species) has not been well characterized. Lost production days due to pond crashes can significantly lower annual production yields. In addition, depending on the 184scale and type of system, days to weeks of production can be lost while the system is disinfected and new inoculum and the growth medium is prepared. Depending on the design and operation of the production facility, there is a risk of spread or persistence of contamination and successive crashes. Despite a paucity of publically available data on the economic impact of biocontaminants on the nascent algae biomass industry, the consensus is that they constitute an economic barrier to commercialization (Davis et al. 2012; Gao et al. 2012). Some insight into the potential magnitude of the financial impact may be gained from the aquaculture-for-food industry, which loses several billion U.S. dollars annually (Subasinghe et al. 2001; FAO 2010) due to bacterial and fungal infections (Defoirdt et al. 2004; Ding and Ma 2005; Ramaiah 2006).