About Dunaliella Salina

Unicellular green algae of the genus Dunaliella Teod. (Chlorophyta) have been used extensively as model organisms for various research areas and for mass culture. Since the early 19th century researchers have investigated the origin of the orange, purple, or pink color of water from salt lakes and salterns. Earlier it already was noticed that some kind of unicellular alga was causing the orange color of these hypersaline water bodies. In addition, worldwide distribution and habitats of algae of the genus Dunaliella are covered. As a specific example the Great Salt

Lake in Utah, USA is described as a habitat of three recognized Dunaliella species. Dunaliella species are mostly radially symmetrical, sometimes bilaterally symmetrical, flattened, dorsoventrally curved or slightly asymmetrical. The cell shape varies from ellipsoidal, ovoid, cylindrical, pyriform, or fusiform to almost spherical. Figure 1 shows a representative cell for Dunaliella. Dunaliella cells lack rigid cellwalls, a feature distinguishing them from other unicellular green algae such as the genus Chlamydomonas.