Effect of nutritional mode viz., photoautotrophic, photoheterotrophic and photomixotrophic on the biomass growth and lipid productivity of microalgae was studied. Experiments were designed and operated in biphasic mode i.e., growth phase (GP) followed by stress induced starvation phase (SP). Nutritional mode documented marked influence on biomass growth and subsequent lipid productivity. Mixotrophic mode of operation showed higher biomass growth (4.45 mg/ml) during growth phase while higher lipid productivity was observed with nitrogen deprived autotrophic mode (28.2%) followed by heterotrophic (26.1%) and mixotrophic (19.6%) operations. Relative increments in lipid productivities were noticed in SP operation from GP in mixotrophic operation (2.45) followed by autotrophic (2.2) and heterotrophic (2.14) mode of operations. Higher concentrations of chlorophyll b and presence of lipid accumulating species supported the lipid biosynthesis. Algal fatty acid composition varied with function of nutritional modes and depicted eighteen types of saturated (SFA) and unsaturated fatty acids (USFA) with wide fuel and food characteristics. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.