Person:
Costas Costas, Eduardo

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First Name
Eduardo
Last Name
Costas Costas
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/80465
Affiliation
Universidad Complutense de Madrid
Faculty / Institute
Veterinaria
Department
Producción Animal
Area
Producción Animal
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2023 - 20242
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Author: García Balboa, María Del Camino ×

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    Settling selection of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii for samarium uptake
    (Journal of Phycology, 2024) Martínez-Alesón García, Paloma; García Balboa, María Del Camino; López Rodas, Victoria; Costas Costas, Eduardo; Baselga Cervera, Beatriz
    Samarium (Sm) is a rare-earth element recently included in the list of critical elements due to its vital role in emerging new technologies. With an increasing demand for Sm, microbial bioremediation may provide a cost-effective and a more ecologically responsible alternative to remove and recover Sm. We capitalized on a previously selected Chlamydomonas reinhardtii strain tolerant to Sm (1.33 × 10−4 M) and acidic pH and carried out settling selection to increase the Sm uptake performance. We observed a rapid response to selection in terms of cellular phenotype. Cellular size decreased and circularity increased in a stepwise manner with every cycle of selection. After four cycles of selection, the derived CSm4 strain was significantly smaller and was capable of sequestrating 41% more Sm per cell (1.7 × 10−05 ± 1.7 × 10−06 ng) and twice as much Sm in terms of wet biomass (4.0 ± 0.4 mg Sm · g−1) compared to the ancestral candidate strain. The majority (~70%) of the Sm was bioaccumulated intracellularly, near acidocalcisomes or autophagic vacuoles as per TEM-EDX microanalyses. However, Sm analyses suggest a stronger response toward bioabsorption resulting from settling selection. Despite working with Sm and pH-tolerant strains, we observed an effect on fitness and photosynthesis inhibition when the strains were grown with Sm. Our results clearly show that phenotypic selection, such as settling selection, can significantly enhance Sm uptake. Laboratory selection of microalgae for rare-earth metal bioaccumulation and sorption can be a promising biotechnological approach.
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    An exploratory study on the possibilities of microalgal biotechnology to obtain the essential 6Li isotope as fusion fuel
    (Biotechnology for Biofuels and Bioproducts, 2023) García Balboa, María Del Camino; Martínez-Alesón, Paloma; López Rodas, Victoria; Costas Costas, Eduardo; Fernández Díaz, Marta
    Future energy supply needs to overcome two challenges: environmental impact and dependence on geopolitically unstable countries. A very promising alternative is based on lithium, an element for batteries, and whose isotope 6Li will be essential in nuclear fusion. The objective of this research has been to determine if it is possible to achieve isotopic fractionation of lithium through a process mediated by microalgae. For this purpose, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii was selected and grown in presence of 5 mg/L of lithium. Results revealed that this specie survives at the selected lithium concentration, discriminates isotopes and preferentially capture 6Li (6δ = 10.029 ± 3.307) through a process independent of the cellular growth. Concomitate recovered up 0.206 mg/L of lithium along a process of 21 days. The result of this study lets to affirm that Chlamydomonas reinhardtii might be used to obtain lithium enriched in the lighter isotope.