Isolation, Molecular Identification and Comparative Lipid Profiling of Microalgae and Cyanobacteria

Abstract

Photosynthetic micro organisms, including microalgae and cyanobacteria, are efficient in converting solar energy and recycling CO2 into substrates (glycogen, triglycerides and fatty acids) for bio fuel production, and they do not compete with agriculture for arable land. As per Chisti et al [1], oil content of some microalgae exceeds 80% of the dry weight of their biomass during environmental stress such as salinity, nutritional starvation etc. Agricultural oil crops, such as soybean, oil palm and waste cooking oil are widely being used to produce biodiesel; however, oil crops produce oils in amounts that are miniscule (e.g. less than5%of total biomass basis) compared with microalgae and cyanobacteria. In the current work, microalgae and cyanobacteria were isolated from natural sources and they purified and cultured under standard conditions. The molecular identification of the organism was done by 16s/18s rDNA technology. Lipids were extracted; particularly neutral lipids. The extracted lipids were subjected to Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). The lipid extraction protocol was optimized for the better production of lipids which can be used as substrate for biodiesel fuel production.