Isolation and characterization of an indigenous isolate of Dunaliella sp. for beta-carotene and glycerol production from a hypersaline lake in India

Dunaliella, a green alga grows in a wide range of marine and freshwater habitats such as oceans, brine lakes, salt marshes and salt-water ditches near the sea, predominantly in water bodies containing more than 10% salt. Sambhar salt lake, Rajasthan (India) was found as one of the natural habitat of Dunaliella sp. The species was isolated and screened for accumulation of beta-carotene and glycerol. It was studied for the growth attributes like total protein, optical density, total chlorophyll, total carotenoid, beta-carotene and glycerol. Under unstressed physico-chemical conditions the maximum beta-carotene and glycerol observed was 1.15 pg/cell and 94.26 pg/cell respectively. The stress (salt stress (NaCl), high light intensities and continuous light) allowed the alga to accumulate high beta-carotene (approximately 4.21 pg/cell under 118.18 micromole m(-2) s(-1) of light intensity) without massive reduction in biomass content. This opens up new avenues for exploring this strain for future research and its commercial exploitation.