Assessment of diatom growth using fluorescence imaging

Monitoring the growth of diatom microalgae requires sensitive, fast, and easy-to-use methods for selecting the most productive strains for further research and application. Here we propose a novel, rapid and non-destructive approach for monitoring the viability and growth of diatom colonies using the IVIS fluorescence imaging system. The fast-growing Achnanthidium sibiricum diatoms were cultivated in favorable laboratory conditions in a specially designed bioincubator for 100 days. The results showed that the diatoms reached the end of the exponential growth phase after 56 days of culture, after which there was a slight decrease in fluorescence intensity. This method relies on using chlorophyll a fluorescence without any sample preparation and has proved to be successful for monitoring algae growth in an incubator during long-term batch cultivation. This result paves the way towards controlled diatom cultivation aimed at collecting diatom-derived bioactive compounds for various purposes.