Filamentous cyanobacteria from Vojvodina region [Serbia] as source of phycobiliprotein pigments as potential natural colorants

Simeunović, J.B., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad; Marković, S.B., Water supply and Sewerage Company of Novi Sad, Novi Sad; Kovač, D.J., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad; Mišan, A.Č., Institute for Food Technology, Novi Sad; Mandić, A.I., Institute for Food Technology, Novi Sad; Svirčev, Z.B., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad

Filamentous cyanobacteria from Vojvodina region [Serbia] as source of phycobiliprotein pigments as potential natural colorants

2012

Simeunović, J.B., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad (Serbia) | Marković, S.B., Water supply and Sewerage Company of Novi Sad, Novi Sad (Serbia) | Kovač, D.J., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad (Serbia) | Mišan, A.Č., Institute for Food Technology, Novi Sad (Serbia) | Mandić, A.I., Institute for Food Technology, Novi Sad (Serbia) | Svirčev, Z.B., Faculty of Sciences, Novi Sad (Serbia)

Phycobiliproteins are a group of colored proteins present in cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). They are extensively commercially used in foods, cosmetics, biotechnology, pharmacology and medicine. In order to determine production of phycobiliproteins in cyanobacterial strains, the quantity of these pigments in 10 filamentous cyanobacteria was investigated. The study was conducted with terrestrial cyanobacterial strains isolated from different soil types in Vojvodina region (Serbia) which belong to Nostoc, Anabaena and Spirulina genera. The obtained results showed that the qualitative and quantitative contents of phycobiliproteins depended not only on cyanobacterial strain, but also on the composition of growth media. In case of strains which belong to Nostoc and Anabaena genera higher pigment content was found in case of strains cultivated in nitrogen free medium compared to strains grown in medium with nitrogen. The highest content of phycocyanin was found in Anabaena strain C2 (22.62 Mg/ml) grown in nitrogen free medium, while Nostoc strain S1 contained the highest PC amount of 18.37 Mg/ml growing in presence of nitrogen. The Nostoc strain S1 had the highest content of allophycocyanin growing in both type of nutricious media (25.11 Mg/ml and 13.88 Mg/ml, respectively). The highest phycoerythrin concentration was characterized the strain Anabaena LC1B in nitrogen free medium (24.87 Mg/ml) and in presence of nitrogen (20.85 Mg/ml). The results of total phycobiliprotein content of tested cyanobacteria showed that the highest content in nitrogen free condition characterized Anabaena strains C2 (57.70 Mg/ml) and LC1B (58.75 Mg/ml) and Nostoc strain S1 (57.26 Mg/ml). Compared to these Nostoc and Anabaena strains the contents of all three pigments as well as total pigment content were much lower in both tested Spirulina strains. Therefore, some studied strains of Anabaena and Nostoc genera represent excellent sources of one or more phycobiliproteins.

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