{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,12]],"date-time":"2026-02-12T16:42:30Z","timestamp":1770914550077,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,12]],"date-time":"2021-06-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1623456000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The large-scale cultivation of microalgae provides a wide spectrum of marketable bioproducts, profitably used in many fields, from the preparation of functional health products and feed supplement in aquaculture and animal husbandry to biofuels and green chemistry agents. The commercially successful algal biomass production requires effective strategies to maintain the process at desired productivity and stability levels. Hence, the development of effective early warning methods to timely indicate remedial actions and to undertake countermeasures is extremely important to avoid culture collapse and consequent economic losses. With the aim to develop an early warning method of algal contamination, the potentiometric E-tongue was applied to record the variations in the culture environments, over the whole growth process, of two unialgal cultures, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and a microalgal contaminant, along with those of their mixed culture. The E-tongue system ability to distinguish the cultures and to predict their growth stage, through the application of multivariate data analysis, was shown. A PLS regression method applied to the E-tongue output data allowed a good prediction of culture growth time, expressed as growth days, with R2 values in a range from 0.913 to 0.960 and RMSEP of 1.97\u20132.38 days. Moreover, the SIMCA and PLS-DA techniques were useful for cultures contamination monitoring. The constructed PLS-DA model properly discriminated 67% of cultures through the analysis of their growth media, i.e., environments, thus proving the potential of the E-tongue system for a real time monitoring of contamination in microalgal intensive cultivation.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21124052","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,14]],"date-time":"2021-06-14T22:25:46Z","timestamp":1623709546000},"page":"4052","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Keeping Track of Phaeodactylum tricornutum (Bacillariophyta) Culture Contamination by Potentiometric E-Tongue"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8408-0295","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Saverio","family":"Savio","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"},{"name":"PhD Program in Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0543-4348","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Corrado","family":"di Natale","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2380-1404","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberto","family":"Paolesse","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemical Science and Technologies, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1137-6973","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Larisa","family":"Lvova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronics Engineering, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6288-1638","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Roberta","family":"Congestri","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Rome \u201cTor Vergata\u201d, 00133 Rome, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"193","DOI":"10.1016\/j.algal.2018.04.002","article-title":"An integrated biorefinery process: Stepwise extraction of fucoxanthin, eicosapentaenoic acid and chrysolaminarin from the same Phaeodactylum tricornutum biomass","volume":"32","author":"Zhang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Algal Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"199","DOI":"10.1016\/B978-0-444-63929-5.00006-1","article-title":"Bioactive Compounds from Microalgae: Current Development and Prospects","volume":"54","author":"Fu","year":"2017","journal-title":"Stud. 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