Masters Thesis

Growth characteristics of Dunaliella primolecta and Botryococcus braunii in fruit industry wastewater and development of a protocol to generate transgeinic [s.i.c.] algae

In the present study, we studied the growth characteristics of two species of green algae; Dunliella primolecta and Botryococcus braunii, in fruit industry wastewater and also studied the COD removal from wastewater by these species. We found that both the species of algae could grow better in 25% (v/v) wastewater reaching the stationary phase when compared to other concentrations of wastewater. However, Dunaliella primolecta was found to be growing faster than Botryococcus braunii, reaching a concentration of 8x106 cells/mL in 15 days. Also, it was found to remove 63% of COD from fruit industry wastewater obtained from Wawona Frozen Foods, CA. We also reported the first successful Agrobacterium tumefaciens method of transformation for the green algae Dunaliella primolecta using the binary vector pCAMBIA 1301 containing the genes coding for GUS (B-Glucuronidase) and hpt (hygromycin phospho- transferase). The developed transformation protocol would pave a way for easy manipulation of Dunaliella primolecta for the production of biofuels and other secondary metabolites.

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