Biotechnological screening of microalgal and cyanobacterial strains for biogas production and antibacterial and antifungal effects.

Microalgae and cyanobacteria represent a valuable natural resource for the generation of a large variety of chemical substances that are of interest for medical research, can be used as additives in cosmetics and food production, or as an energy source in biogas plants. The variety of potential agents and the use of microalgae and cyanobacteria biomass for the production of these substances are little investigated and not exploited for the market. Due to the enormous biodiversity of microalgae and cyanobacteria, they hold great promise for novel products. In this study, we investigated a large number of microalgal and cyanobacterial strains from the Culture Collection of Algae at Gottingen University (SAG) with regard to their biomass and biogas production, as well antibacterial and antifungal effects. Our results demonstrated that microalgae and cyanobacteria are able to generate a large number of economically-interesting substances in different quantities dependent on strain type. The distribution and quantity of some of these components were found to reflect phylogenetic relationships at the level of classes. In addition, between closely related species and even among multiple isolates of the same species, the productivity may be rather variable.