The Effect of Cytokinin on Growth and Physiology of Dunaliella salina.

Dunaliella salina cultivation is very important because of the ability of these organisms in the production and accumulation of bioactive substances such as carotenoids, economically. This microalga belongs to green alga and inhabitant in salt water. Nevertheless, current yield of microalga-based procedures is still very low, which has restricted their scale-up culturing. This study reported a growth regulator of cytokinin (BAP) effect on growth and physiological characteristics of the Dunaliella. BAP concentrations were zero, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 mg.ml-1. After 4 weeks of treatment, increasing in BAP concentration led to a significant increase in the growth rate and Dunaliella cell number. BAP also increases the concentration of photosynthetic pigments, protein and sugar significantly. It can be concluded that the use of 12 mg.ml-1 BAP could increase cell number of Dunaliella about 63% and growth rate about 60% that it may be were the result of improvements in the efficiency of photosynthesis and cell division.