Effect of Macronutrients on Recombinant mCherry Production by Microalga

This study sought to evaluate the influence of five macronutrients (acetate, calcium, sulfate, nitrogen, and phosphate) on the cell growth and heterologous mCherry protein production by Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In the first step, three nitrogen (N) sources were tested (NH₄NO₃, NaNO₃, and NH₄Cl), and NH₄NO₃ was selected as N source for the following step, due to the best results for mCherry protein production. In the second step, a central composite design 2⁵ was employed to evaluate the effect of the five macronutrients. Although all nutrients had effect on maximum biomass concentration, only acetate, nitrogen, and phosphate showed to influence mCherry protein production. By employing the experimental design with small-scale culture in multiplates and multivariable regression, it was possible to achieve 12 % increase for recombinant protein production.