My Pink Best Friend - Dunaliella salina!

Dunaliella salina is commonly known as green alga. It is biflaggelated and is pear shaped. It is gram negative.

D. salina, these biflagellated and pear shaped cells dominate this lake because it’s well-adapted to unusually salty environments. Despite looking like a pool of strawberry milkshakes, Lake Hillier is actually hypersaline and not at all an easy place for a bacteria (alga) to live. As you expose D. salina to saltier environments, the pigment that makes it pink becomes more and more concentrated, indicating that it may have a role in protecting the cell from high salinity. D. salina is mostly able to cope with extreme saltiness for different reasons. One of the reason is it doesn’t have a cell wall (only a malleable membrane), allowing it to expand and contract to maintain a live-able internal salt concentration.

All photosynthetic organisms have pigments (like the chlorophyll in plant leaves), but some organisms have more of a variety of pigments than others. D. salina is pink because it has very high levels of a carotenoid pigment called β-carotene. If that sounds somehow healthy to you, it’s because β-carotene is the pigment that gives a lot of fruits and veggies their colour. It is also converted into vitamin A inside your body. For that reason, β-carotene is often sold as a dietary supplement. D. salina's bright pink β-carotene stores make it a very valuable, not to mention beautiful, alga to cultivate. Dunaliella salina have got great attention in the nutritional, pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies because contain β-carotene. β-carotene functions as antioxidants and precursors of vitamin A and can treat tumors and cancer in humans. The content of β-carotene in D. salina can be increased by increasing salinity levels in the culture medium.

Flamingos, shrimp and many other animals use chemical compounds found in their diets to color their exteriors. Flamingos get their pink appearance from the pigments found in their routine diets. Many believe that the pink comes from the shrimp they eat, but this is only part of the story. These birds also enjoy eating green algae that blooms when available. This algae is Dunaliella salina. Both the algae and shrimp are rich in pigments called carotenoids and these carotenoids are what is responsible for the pink coloration. Flamingos’ liver breaks down these carotenoids into both orange and pink molecules that are later absorbed by their fat. This colored fat then works its way through the body, coloring the birds’ beaks, feathers, and legs in the process. The quantity of carotenoids that flamingos eat determines how pink the bird will be. Some birds are darker pink than others, with some being almost entirely white.

As a consequence of the world's growing population, the increase of urban wastewater production has become one of many environmental challenges. Production and emission of CO2 from different sources have caused significant changes in the climate, which is the major concern related to global warming. Among other CO2 removal approaches, microalgae can efficiently remove CO2 through the rapid production of algal biomass. In addition, microalgae have the potential to be used in wastewater treatment. Wastewater treatment may be processed at primary, secondary or tertiary levels using physical, biological, or chemical processes. Primary treatment removes settleable solids that can cause operational problems in advanced treatment steps. Secondary treatment is a physical/biological process that consumes the dissolved organic matter and oxidizes the major nutrients to nitrate and orthophosphate. Tertiary is an advanced treatment process that removes nitrates, phosphates and trace organic compounds. As an alternative to conventional tertiary treatment, both nitrogen and phosphorus can be removed by rapidly growing cultures of algae. This way, nitrogen and phosphorus can directly be taken up by microalgae, resulting in valuable algal biomass.The bacteria break down the complex organic matter into simpler compounds and the algae provide the oxygen necessary to run the aerobic bacterial processes.

Dunaliella salina is a unicellular microalga that grows in high-temperature, saltwater areas. While most organisms are able to tolerate a very narrow range of salinity in their environment, this green alga is known as a halophile, or "salt-lover." Dunaliella salina enhances abscisic acid metabolism and increases glycerol production, mechanisms that help prevent its cell membrane from losing water across a high osmotic gradient. It also accumulates massive quantities of beta-carotene and photolyase to afford it resistance against intense UV light. Helps support and maintain vitality and general wellbeing. Helps maintain healthy skin and eyes. Helps maintain a healthy immune system. Reduces premature ageing. Protects against free radical damage. Assists in the maintenance of healthy cholesterol levels. Assists natural detoxification processes.