초록
<P>In this study, <I>Tisochrysis lutea</I> was cultivated in mixotrophic and heterotrophic cultures with glycerol as a carbon source and with glucose and acetate for comparison; autotrophic cultivation was the control group without a carbon source. It was found that <I>T. lutea</I> used glycerol and did not use glucose and acetate under mixotrophy. Mixotrophy slightly elevated the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and total fatty acids (TFA) content in the dry-weight and enhanced the DHA and TFA production in medium (41.3 and 31.9% respectively) at the end of a 16-day cultivation, while heterotrophy reduced the DHA content and TFA production. Under the mixotrophy, the glycerol contribution to the DHA production (16.19 mg/L) and the TFA production (97.8 mg/L) was not very high and the DHA yield [2.63% chemical oxygen demand (COD)] and TFA yield (13.1% COD) were also very low. Furthermore, <I>T. lutea</I> using glycerol had a period of adaptation, indicating that <I>T. lutea</I> was not an ideal microalga for organic carbon utilization.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (10.1186/s13568-018-0580-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>