Applied Microbiology: Open Access
Open Access
ISSN: 2471-9315
+44 1300 500008
ISSN: 2471-9315
+44 1300 500008
Wipawee Dejtisakdi, Vongsathorn Ngampuak and Yutachai Chookaew
King Mongkut�s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand
Posters & Accepted Abstracts: Appli Micro Open Access
Dunaliella salina has great potential as a system for generating commercially valuable products, including beta-carotene, pharmaceuticals, and biofuels. Our goal is to improve this potential by enhancing growth rate and other properties of D. salina under optimal growth conditions. We used ethyl methyl sulfonate (EMS) to generate mutants in D. salina KU11, a strain classified in Thailand. In a preliminary experiment, we first treated D. salina cells with 0%, 0.8%, 1.0%, 1.2%, 1.44% and 1.66% EMS to generate a killing curve. After that, we randomly picked 30 candidates from approximately 300 isolated survivor colonies from the 1.44% EMS treatment (which permitted 30% survival) as an initial test of the mutant screen. Among the 30 survivor lines, we found that two had significantly improved growth rates and cell number accumulation at stationary phase approximately up to 1.8 and 1.45 fold, respectively, two strains had significantly decreased growth rates and cell number accumulation at stationary phase approximately down to 1.4 and 1.35 fold, respectively, while 26 of 30 lines had similar growth rates compared with the wild type control. We also analyzed cell size for each strain and found there was no significant difference comparing all mutants with the wild type. Progress towards analysis of biomass and beta-carotene production will be reported. From these preliminary results, it could be feasible to identify D. salina mutants with significant improved growth rate and cell accumulation compared to the wild type; this makes it possible to improve this microorganism as a platform for biotechnology application.
Email: wipawee_dej@hotmail.com