• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.178-185
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• 2007

Myrionecta rubra Jankowski 1976(=Mesodinium rubrum Lohmann 1908), a mixotrophic ciliate, is very common and often causes recurrent red tides in diverse marine environments. Since the report on the first laboratory strain of this species in 2000, papers on its novel ecological role and evolutionary importance have been high lighted. This review paper is prepared to promote the de novo recognition M. rubra as a marine mixotrophic species. M. rubra is a ciliate which is able to photosynthesize using plastids originated from cryptophyte (including Teleaulax sp. and Geminigera sp.) prey cells (i.e. kleptoplastidic ciliate). Recently, novel bacterivory of M. rubra was firstly reported. Thus, the nutritional modes of M. rubra include photosynthesis, bacterivory, and algivory. In turn, M. rubra was reported as the prey species of metazoan predators such as calanoid copepods, mysids, larvae of ctenophore and anchovy, and spats of bivalves. In addition, it was reported that dinoflagellate Dinophysis causing diarrhetic shellfish poisoning is one among the predators of M. rubra. Thus, M. rubra, a marine mixotrophic ciliate, may play a pivotal role as a common linking ciliate for the flow of energy and organic material in pelagic food webs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2012.10a
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• pp.945-946
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• 2012

• ALGAE
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.207-216
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• 2005

Myrionecta rubra, a mixotrophic ciliate, is a cosmopolitan red tide species which is commonly found in neritic and estuarine waters. M. rubra had long been listed as an “nculturable protist”until 2 different laboratory strains were finally established in 2 research groups at the beginning of this century, enabling us to perform initiative investigation into various aspect of the live M. rubra strains (Gustafson et al. 2000; Yih et al. 2004b; Johnson and Stoecker 2005). Field sampling was carried out on high tide at 2 fixed stations around Kunsan Inner Harbor (St.1 near the Estuarine Weir and St.2 off Kunsan Ferry Station) every other day for 4 months from mid-February 2004 to understand detailed figure of the recurrent spring blooms of M. rubra following the onset of the water gates operation of the Keum River Estuarine Weir on August 1994. With its maximum abundance of 272 cells mL$^{-1}$ in St.1, fluctuation pattern of the M. rubra population at the 2 stations was strikingly similar. Notable growth of M. rubra population started on late April, to cause M. rubra red tides during one month from mid-May in which “xceptionally low salinity days”without its red tide were intermittently inserted. High abundance of M. rubra over 50 cells mL$^{-1}$ was recorded at samples with their water temperature and salinity higher than 15${^{\circ}C}$ and 4.0 psu, respectively. During pre-bloom period when salinity fluctuation is moderate and the water temperature is cooler than 15°C, Skeletonema costatum, a chain-forming centric diatom, was most dominant. Cyanobacterial species such as Aphanizomenon flos-aquae and Phormidium sp. replaced other dominant phytoplankters on the days with “xceptionally low salinity”even during the main blooming period of M. rubra. To summarize, M. rubra could form spring blooms in Keum River Estuary when the level of salinity fluctuation was more severe than that for the dominant diatom Skeletonema costatum and milder than that for the predominance by freshwater cyanobacteria. Therefore, optimal control of the scale and frequency of freshwater discharges might lead us to partially modify the fluctuation pattern of M. rubra populations as well as the period of spring blooms by M. rubra in Keum River Estuary. Sampling time interval of 2 days for the present study or daily sampling was concluded to be minimally required for the detailed exploration into the spring blooms by M. rubra populations in estuaries with weirs like Keum River Estuary.

• ALGAE
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.137-152
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• 2014

Mixotrophic protists play diverse roles in marine food webs as predators and prey. Thus, exploring mixotrophy in phototrophic protists has emerged as a critical step in understanding marine food webs and cycling of materials in marine ecosystem. To investigate the feeding of newly described mixotrophic dinoflagellate Ansanella granifera, we explored the feeding mechanism and the different types of species that A. granifera was able to feed on. In addition, we measured the growth and ingestion rates of A. granifera feeding on the prasinophyte Pyramimonas sp., the only algal prey, as a function of prey concentration. A. granifera was able to feed on heterotrophic bacteria and the cyanobacterium Synechococcus sp. However, among the 12 species of algal prey offered, A. granifera ingested only Pyramimonas sp. A. granifera ingested the algal prey cell by engulfment. With increasing mean prey concentration, the growth rate of A. granifera feeding on Pyramimonas sp. increased rapidly, but became saturated at a concentration of $434ngCmL^{-1}$ (10,845 cells $mL^{-1}$). The maximum specific growth rate (i.e., mixotrophic growth) of A. granifera feeding on Pyramimonas sp. was $1.426d^{-1}$, at $20^{\circ}C$ under a 14 : 10 h light-dark cycle of $20{\mu}Em^{-2}s^{-1}$, while the growth rate (i.e., phototrophic growth) under similar light conditions without added prey was $0.391d^{-1}$. With increasing mean prey concentration, the ingestion rate of A. granifera feeding on Pyramimonas sp. increased rapidly, but slightly at the concentrations ${\geq}306ngCmL^{-1}$ (7,649 cells $mL^{-1}$). The maximum ingestion rate of A. granifera feeding on Pyramimonas sp. was 0.97 ng C $predator^{-1}d^{-1}$ (24.3 cells $grazer^{-1}d^{-1}$). The calculated grazing coefficients for A. granifera feeding on co-occurring Pyramimonas sp. were up to $2.78d^{-1}$. The results of the present study suggest that A. granifera can sometimes have a considerable grazing impact on the population of Pyramimonas spp.

• ALGAE
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.225-236
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• 2020

Gymnodinium smaydae is a newly described mixotrophic dinoflagellate that feeds on only Heterocapsa spp. and Scrippsiella acuminata among 19 tested algal prey. It is one of the fastest growing dinoflagellates when feeding, but does not grow well without prey. To investigate its spatial-temporal distributions in Korean waters, we quantified its abundance in water samples that were seasonally collected from 28 stations along the Korean Peninsula from April 2015 to October 2018, using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions. This dinoflagellate had a wide distribution, as reflected by the detection of G. smaydae cells at 23 of the sampling stations. However, this distribution had a strong seasonality; it was detected at 21 stations in the summer and only one station in winter. The abundance of G. smaydae was significantly and positively correlated with chlorophyll a concentration as well as with water temperature. However, there were no significant correlations between the abundance of G. smaydae and salinity, concentrations of nutrients, or dissolved oxygen concentration. During the study period, G. smaydae was present when water temperatures were 7.6-28.0℃, salinities were 9.6-34.1, concentrations of NO₃ were not detectable-106.0 μM, and concentrations of PO₄ were not detectable-3.4 μM. The highest abundance of G. smaydae was 18.5 cells mL^-1 in the coastal waters of Jinhae in July 2017 when the chlorophyll a concentration was 127 mg m^-3 and water temperature was 23.8℃. Therefore, the spatial-temporal distribution of G. smaydae in Korean coastal waters may be affected by chlorophyll a concentration and water temperature.

• ALGAE
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.277-292
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• 2020

Omega-3 fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are polyunsaturated fatty acids beneficial to human health. A limited number of microalgae have been used for commercial omega-3 production, which necessitates the identification of new microalgae with high omega-3 contents. We explored the fatty acid composition and EPA and DHA contents of the mixotrophic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium smaydae fed with the optimal algal prey species Heterocapsa rotundata. Cells of G. smaydae were found to be rich in omega-3 fatty acids. In particular, the DHA content of G. smaydae was 21 mg g^-1 dry weight, accounting for 43% of the total fatty acid content. The percentage of DHA in the total fatty acid content of G. smaydae was the highest among the reported microalgae except for Crypthecodinium cohnii. Moreover, to determine if the prey supply interval affected the growth rate of G. smaydae and its fatty acid content, three different prey supply intervals (daily, once every 2 d, and once for 4 d) were tested. Daily prey supply yielded the highest total fatty acid and DHA contents in G. smaydae. Furthermore, we successfully produced high-density G. smaydae cultures semi-continuously for 43 d with daily prey supply. During the semi-continuous cultivation period, the highest density of G. smaydae was 57,000 cells mL^-1, with an average growth rate of 0.7 d^-1. Taken together, the percentage of EPA and DHA in the total fatty acid content was maintained in the range of 54.2-56.9%. The results of this study support G. smaydae as a promising microalgal candidate for commercial DHA production and demonstrate that daily supply of prey can efficiently produce high-density G. smaydae cultures for more than a month.

• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.281-290
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• 2015

We explored phagotrophy of the phototrophic ciliate Mesodinium rubrum on the cyanobacterium Synechococcus. The ingestion and clearance rates of M. rubrum on Synechococcus as a function of prey concentration were measured. In addition, we calculated grazing coefficients by combining the field data on abundance of M. rubrum and co-occurring Synechococcus spp. with laboratory data on ingestion rates. The ingestion rate of M. rubrum on Synechococcus sp. linearly increased with increasing prey concentrations up to approximately 1.9 × 10⁶ cells mL^-1, to exhibit sigmoidal saturation at higher concentrations. The maximum ingestion and clearance rates of M. rubrum on Synechococcus were 2.1 cells predator^-1 h^-1 and 4.2 nL predator^-1 h^-1, respectively. The calculated grazing coefficients attributable to M. rubrum on cooccurring Synechococcus spp. reached 0.04 day^-1. M. rubrum could thus sometimes be an effective protistan grazer of Synechococcus in marine planktonic food webs. M. rubrum might also be able to form recurrent and massive blooms in diverse marine environments supported by the unique and complex mixotrophic arrays including phagotrphy on hetrotrophic bacteria and Synechococcus as well as digestion, kleptoplastidy and karyoklepty after the ingestion of cryptophyte prey.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.74-79
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• 2017

In this study, the optimization of several factors for Chlorella saccharophila cultivation was investigated. The studied factors were medium type, culture type, inoculum size, sugar/nitrogen source type and concentrations. As a result, the optimized conditions for C. saccharophila cultivation were found to be the best at 3% (v/v) inoculum, 30 g/L glucose and 0.95 g/L $NaNO_3$ under mixotrophic culture. Under the optimized condition, the content of oil was high at 12 day, whereas, the amount of biomass and chlorophyll were high at 10 day.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2016

The growth of the algae strain Chlorella vulgaris under mixotrophic conditions in the presence of saccharified acorn-starch (acorn-glucose) was evaluated with the objective of increasing biomass growth and triacylglycerols (TAGs) content. The results indicated that 81.3% of starch was converted to glucose in acorns. C.vulgaris algal strains grown with acorn-glucose produced higher biomass and TAGs content than with autotrophic growth. The highest biomass production and TAGs content with 3 g/L acorn-glucose were 12.44 g/L and 32.9%, respectively. Biomass production with 3 g/L acorn-glucose was 16.4 fold higher than under autotrophic growth condition. These findings suggested that 3 g/L acorn-glucose is economic and efficient for biomass production/productivity and TAGs content of microalgae. This study provides a feasible way to reduce the cost of bioenergy production from microalgae.

• ALGAE
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.343-354
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• 2013

To explore the interactions between the mixotrophic dinoflagellate Biecheleria cincta (previously Woloszynskia cincta) and heterotrophic protists, we investigated whether the common heterotrophic dinoflagellates Gyrodinium dominans, Gyrodinium moestrupii, Gyrodinium spirale, Oxyrrhis marina, and Polykrikos kofoidii, and the ciliate Strobilidium sp. were able to feed on B. cincta. We also measured growth and ingestion rates of O. marina and Strobilidium sp. on B. cincta as a function of prey concentration. In addition, these rates were measured for other predators at single prey concentrations at which the growth and ingestion rates of O. marina and Strobilidium sp. were saturated. All grazers tested in the present study were able to feed on B. cincta. B. cincta clearly supported positive growth of O. marina, G. dominans, and Strobilidium sp., but it did not support that of G. moestrupii, G. spirale, and P. kofoidii. The maximum growth rates of Strobilidium sp. and O. marina on B. cincta (0.91 and 0.49 $d^{-1}$, respectively) were much higher than that of G. dominans (0.07 $d^{-1}$). With increasing the mean prey concentration, the specific growth rates of O. marina and Strobilidium sp. on B. cincta increased, but either became saturated or slowly increased. The maximum ingestion rate of Strobilidium sp. (1.60 ng C $predator^{-1}\;d^{-1}$) was much higher than that of P. kofoidii and O. marina (0.55 and 0.34 ng C $predator^{-1}\;d^{-1}$) on B. cincta. The results of the present study suggest that O. marina and Strobilidium sp. are effective protistan grazers of B. cincta.