Algae-associated microbiota

Microalgae, a diverse group of single-celled organisms exhibiting versatile traits, find broad applications in industry e.g. as feedstock for biofuel production, as animal feed and pharmaceuticals, or as sustainable alternative to synthetic fertilizers. However, high production costs require further efforts to optimize fermentation and to enhance biomass yields. In naturally occurring microalgae biofilms, which were studied by complementary 16S rRNA gene fragment amplicon sequencing, algae showed a mutual co-occurrence network with methylobacteria. Therefore, four strains of the genus Methylobacterium, well-known for their plant growth-promoting traits, were studied in co-cultivation experiments to assess the effect on growth of three industrially relevant microalgae.