Production of sulfolipids from cyanobacteria in photobioreactors

Sulfolipids are compounds found in association with the photosynthetic apparatus in most photoautotrophic organisms, although there have been no quantitative studies on how environmental and biological factors influence the production of sulfolipids. They are of interest due to their possible pharmaceutical use (anti-tumor and anti-HIV) and also as an interesting new class of lipids. In this study, we are investigating the kinetics of growth and sulfolipid production using the cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803. The cyanobacteria are grown in a 2-L, fed-batch photobioreactor under well-defined conditions. We obtained a final biomass concentration of 5 g/L after 20 days and an overall sulfolipid productivity of 0.24 mg/(L-hr) at a light intensity of 216 mu E/m(2)/s.