Dunaliella salina is a unicellular green alga with a high α-linolenic acid (ALA) level, but a low eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) level. In a previous analysis of the catalytic activity of delta 6 fatty acid desaturase (FADS6) from various species, FADS6 from Thalassiosira pseudonana (TpFADS6), a marine diatom, showed the highest catalytic activity for ALA. In this study, to enhance EPA production ...

Beta-carotene is a terpenoid pigment that is highly valuable due to its nutritional benefit as a precursor of vitamin A and its antioxidant properties. A marine green alga Dunaliella salina is well known for high carotene, with above 95% β-carotene, under growth-limiting conditions. Carotene contents are different among D. salina strains and under different culture conditions. Selecting a Dunal...

Dunaliella salina and Dunaliella bardawil are well known for carotenogenesis, the overproduction of carotenoids, under stress conditions. The effect of high light (HL) and low light (LL) on the growth, morphology, photosynthetic efficiency, and the β-carotene and zeaxanthin production of D. salina CCAP 19/18 and D. bardawil was investigated and compared. Both strains showed similar growth kinet...

Dunaliella salina has been shown to have antioxidant property and induce apoptotic cell death of human cancer cells in vitro. However, there is no information available on D. salina showing an antileukemia effect or immunomodulatory activity in vivo. This study applied D. salina to syngeneic leukemia-implanted mice (BALB/c and WEHI-3) to investigate its immunological and antileukemia properties...

BACKGROUND Dunaliella salina is the most important species of the genus for beta-carotene production. Several investigations have demonstrated that D. salina produces more than 10% dry weight of pigment and that the species grows in salt saturated lagoons. High plasticity in the green stage and the almost indistinguishable differences in the red phase make identification and differentiation of ...

Bloom of Dunaliella salina was observed naturally in stagnant puddles of water off Kuwait's Bubiyan Island on 4 July 2004. In order to closely monitor this bloom, alga were collected and maintained as pure culture of the locally isolated D. salina. Set of experiments was conducted to study and evaluate the optimum culture conditions required for two samples of D. salina (one locally isolated an...

D. salina is one of the recognized natural sources to produce beta-carotene, and an useful model for studying the role of inhibitors and enhancers of carotenogenesis. However there is little information in D. salina regarding whether the isoprenoid substrate can be influenced by stress factors (carotenogenic) or selective inhibitors which in turn may further contribute to elucidate the early st...

Light could induce phosphorylation of light harvesting chlorophyll a/b binding proteins (LHCII) in Dunaliella salina and spinach thylakoid membranes. We found that neither phosphorylation was affected by glycerol, whereas treatment with NaCl significantly enhanced light-induced LHCII phosphorylation in D. salina thylakoid membranes and inhibited that in spinach. Furthermore, even in the absence...

Background: The objective of this study was to develop an efficient selectable marker for transgenic Dunaliella salina. Results: Tests of the sensitivity of D. salina to the antibiotic chloramphenicol and the herbicide Basta® showed that cells (1.0 × 10 cells/ml) treated with 1000 or 1500 μg/ml chloramphenicol died in 8 or 6 days, respectively, whereas D. salina cells (1.0 × 10 cells/ml) treate...