Characterization of two unicellular Algae species Scenedesmus obliquus and Desmodesmus cuneatus from Mahabad dam lake, west Azerbaijan

During the recent years, unicellular algae have been considered as an important source of unsaturated fatty acids, carotenoids such as beta-carotene and food and drug supplementaries. These algae also play important role as live food in breeding of zooplankton, molluscs and aquatic animals in larval stage. So far many species of different families and generas of unicellular algae have been rightly introduced for aquaculture industry. The family of Scenedesmaceae is known as one of the important microalgae which belongs to Chlorophyceae class. This family is identified with several generas which are all important in aquaculture industry for Artemia, Daphnia and Rotifer breeding. In this research, in order to obtain laboratory demands of unicellular algae, one the most important fresh water sources of west Azerbaijan province, Mahabad dam lake was investigated. This study consisted of morphologic, molecular and nutrition value which resulted in isolation of two species of Scenedesmus obliquus, Kützing 1833 and Desmodesmus cuneatus, Hegewald 2002 of this family. The study of mass and batch culturing potential and also the fatty acid profile of these species revealed efficiency of these species for aquaculture industry. However, in spite of morphologic similarities of the two, the total fatty acids of Desmodesmus cuneatus was found significantly higher than other species (P<0.05).