Modified medium for enhanced growth of Dunaliella strains

The genus Dunaliella is a halotolerant microalgae are common in hypersaline environments. Additionally, different species of Dunaliella can accumulate significant amounts of valuable fine chemicals such as carotenoids, glycerol, lipids, vitamins, minerals and proteins. Modified Johnsons medium is widely used for growing Dunaliella species, however, without air supplement the growth of algae was slow. The new medium was designed based on the modified Johnsons medium with altering the concentration of MgSO4, NaHCO3 and addition of NaVO3 and elimination of MgCl2. This medium was named as, Ramaraj medium. Pure cultures of Dunaliella species were isolated from the salt soil samples namely, KU07, KU08, KU11, KU13 and KU16. All the isolated strains grew fast in Ramaraj medium. Among these isolates the growth curve of KU11 was taken for comparing the two media. The growth of KU11 was faster and better in Ramaraj medium than in the modified Johnsons medium in all the different NaCl concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0 M). The result showed that Ramaraj medium is useful for culturing of Dunaliella species.