Vegetos
(An International Journal of Plant Research & Biotechnology)
(eISSN: 2229-4473)
Effects of gamma radiations on growth and photosynthetic pigments in Dunaliella salina
*Article not assigned to an issue yet
Research Articles | Published: 02 January, 2026
First Page: 0
Last Page: 0
Views: 113
Keywords: n Dunaliella salinan , Gamma irradiation, Algal biomass, Chlorophyll a, Chlorophyll b, Total chlorophyll, Carotenoids
Abstract
Dunaliella salina is a unicellular green alga inhabiting hypersaline environments such as salt evaporation ponds as well as high salt lakes and known for its excellent antioxidant and nutritional efficacy. The current study aims to evaluate the effect of different doses of ionizing gamma radiations on different parameters of Dunaliella salina. The analysed parameters include growth in the form of optical density and photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll a + b) as well as carotenoid content. The results of the study show that treatment of algae with gamma rays for different time points (5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, 25 min and 30 min) from a distance of 5.5 cm and 10.5 cm and subculturing of algae for a period of 0 week, 1 week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 4 weeks and 5 weeks respectively led to a significant increase in algal biomass. Furthermore, in all these cases, the algal chlorophyll content (chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll a + b) was observed to decrease. Nevertheless, carotenoid production was found to be significantly increased in Dunaliella salina on treatment with all the doses of gamma radiations and at all the studied time points up to 5th week. It declined in the days to come because of reduced growth. The results indicates that lower doses of gamma rays have a positive impact on carotenoid content.
References
Abomohra AE, El-Shouny W, Sharaf M, Abo-Eleneen M (2016) Effect of gamma radiation on growth and metabolic activities of Arthrospira platensis. Braz Arch Biol Technol 59(29):e16150476
Alslibi ZA, Çelekli A, Bozkurt H (2021) Effect of Dunaliella salina on enhancing viability of probiotic and the nutritional value. Avrupa Bilim Ve Teknoloji Dergisi 28:1309–1311
Amin R, Wani MR, Raina A, Khursheed S, Khan S (2019) Induced morphological and chromosomal diversity in the mutagenized population of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) using single and combination treatments of gamma rays and ethyl methane sulfonate. Jordan J Biol Sci 12(1):65
Bellou S, Baeshen MN, Elazzazy AM, Aggeli D, Sayegh F, Aggelis G (2014) Microalgal lipids biochemistry and biotechnological perspectives. Biotechnol Adv 32(8):1476–1493
Cheng J, Huang Y, Feng J, Sun J, Zhou J, Cen K (2013) Mutate Chlorella sp. by nuclear irradiation to fix high concentrations of CO2. Bioresour Technol 136:496–501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2013.03.072
Gomes T, Xie L, Brede D, Lind OC, Solhaug KA, Salbu B, Tollefsen KE (2017) Sensitivity of the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to gamma radiation: photosynthetic performance and ROS formation. Aquat Toxicol 183(1):1–0
Mišurcová L, Škrovánková S, Samek D, Ambrožová J, Machů L (2012) Health benefits of algal polysaccharides in human nutrition. Adv Food Nutr Res 66(1):75–145
Moisescu C, Ardelean AV, Negut D, Ardelean II (2019) Effect of acute gamma irradiation on generation time, lipid, chlrophyll A and carotenes, in Chlorella sorokiniana UTEX 2130 and Synechocystis PCC 6803. Sci Bull Ser F Biotechnol 1:23
Moussa HR, Ismaiel MM, Shabana EF, Gabr MA, El-Shaer EA (2015) The role of gamma irradiation on growth and some metabolic activities of Spirulina platensis. J Nucl Tech Appl Sci 3(2):99–107
Pradhan B, Baral S, Patra S, Behera C, Nayak R, MubarakAli D, Jena M (2020) Delineation of gamma irradiation (60Co) induced oxidative stress by decrypting antioxidants and biochemical responses of microalga, Chlorella sp. Biocatal Agric Biotechnol 25(1):101595
Sathasivam R, Radhakrishnan R, Hashem A, Abd-Allah EF (2019) Microalgae metabolites: a rich source for food and medicine. Saudi J Biol Sci 26(4):709–722
Shabana EF, Gabr MA, Moussa HR, El-Shaer EA, Ismaiel MM (2017) Biochemical composition and antioxidant activities of Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis in response to gamma irradiation. Food Chem 214(1):550–555
Smith VH, Crews T (2014) Applying ecological principles of crop cultivation in large-scale algal biomass production. Algal Res 4(1):23–34
Soheili M, Khosravi-Darani K (2011) The potential health benefits of algae and micro algae in medicine: a review on Spirulina platensis. Curr Nutr Food Sci 7(4):279–285
Tale MP, devi Singh R, Kapadnis BP, Ghosh SB (2018) Effect of gamma irradiation on lipid accumulation and expression of regulatory genes involved in lipid biosynthesis in Chlorella sp. J Appl Phycol 30:277–286
Tang G, Suter PM (2011) Vitamin A, nutrition, and health values of algae: spirulina, chlorella, and dunaliella. J Pharm Nutr Sci 1(2):111–118
Toghyani MA, Karimi F, Hosseini Tafreshi SA, Talei D (2020) Two distinct time dependent strategic mechanisms used by Chlorella vulgaris in response to gamma radiation. J Appl Phycol 32:1677–1695
Torres-Tiji Y, Fields FJ, Mayfield SP (2020) Microalgae as a future food source. Biotechnol Adv 41(1):107536
Wells ML, Potin P, Craigie JS, Raven JA, Merchant SS, Helliwell KE, Smith AG, Camire ME, Brawley SH (2017) Algae as nutritional and functional food sources: revisiting our understanding. J Appl Phycol 29:949–982
Yi Z, Su Y, Xu M, Bergmann A, Ingthorsson S, Rolfsson O, Salehi-Ashtiani K, Brynjolfsson S, Fu W (2018) Chemical mutagenesis and fluorescence based high-throughput screening for enhanced accumulation of carotenoids in a model marine diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum. Mar Drugs 16(8):272
Author Information
Department of Botany, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, India