In addition, other organic carbons might have been generated
and utilized by filamentous fungal strain A. oryzae during the coculture
on autotrophic growth medium [35]. Furthermore, the cell
walls of microalgae entrapped inside the pellets may be degraded
by the fungi to produce extra organic carbons [10]. However, the
organic carbons produced through above methods are limited, thus
slower fungi–algae pellets formation than that in heterotrophic
growth mode was observed (Fig. 3B)