Synthetic algal-bacteria consortia for space-efficient microalgal growth in a simple hydrogel system.

Photosynthetic microalgae are an attractive source of food, fuel, or nutraceuticals, but commercial production of microalgae is limited by low spatial efficiency. In the present study we developed a simple photosynthetic hydrogel system that cultivates the green microalga, KAS603, together with a novel strain of the bacteria, sp. We tested the performance of the co-culture in the hydrogel using a combination of chlorophyll- fluorimetry, microsensing, and bio-optical measurements.