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Monitoring Microalgal Neutral Lipid Accumulation with Nile Red

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Biofuels from Algae

Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 1980))

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Abstract

The widely applied Nile red (NR) method allows near real-time monitoring of microalgal neutral lipid accumulation. When added to a culture sample, optimally, the fluorescent dye NR penetrates the microalgal cell wall staining the intracellular neutral lipids, and the measured fluorescence is linearly correlated to the neutral lipid concentration. Here I describe an optimization protocol for determining the optimal staining parameters for each new microalgal species, followed by a basic NR staining protocol to be applied for monitoring of microalgal neutral lipid accumulation.

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Correspondence to Katariina Natunen .

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Natunen, K. (2017). Monitoring Microalgal Neutral Lipid Accumulation with Nile Red. In: Spilling, K. (eds) Biofuels from Algae. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 1980. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2017_102

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/7651_2017_102

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-9415-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-9416-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Protocols

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