Abstract
Background: This study aimed to maximize biomass concentration, biomass productivity and biochemical composition of the marine microalga Tetraselmis sp. Methods: In the current study, Box-Behnken Design was used to model the effect of NaNO 3 , NaH 2 PO 4 , metals and vitamins in the F/2 medium on the growth, total chlorophylls, carotenoids and starch contents. The total chlorophylls content was quantified by spectrophotometry. The FT-IR spectroscopy was used to estimate the biochemical compositions of Tetraselmis sp. grown under both optimized medium culture for starch production and standard culture medium.