Abstract

The present study was designed to explore the indigenous Spirulina and its mass cultivation by optimizing the physico-chemical growth requirements. One hundred and twenty samples were collected from different soils and water from three districts (Sargodha, Lahore and Faisalabad) of Punjab. Collected samples were shifted to laboratory immediately under sterile conditions to avoid contamination and were kept under dim light at 30°C. Then Spirulina was isolated from collected samples and cultivated under different nutrient, temperature and light regimens to get its maximum bio-mass in our laboratory. Our results showed that maximum growth of indigenous Spirulina was obtained at 30°C and at 1500 lux light intensity. Nitrogen concentrations of 0.625, 1.25 and 1.875 g/L had no effect on the growth, while phosphate concentrations of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/L had a minimal and gradual effect on growth as the concentrations were increased. For the confirmation and molecular characterization of indigenous Spirulina, DNA was isolated by chloroform-isoamyl alcohol extraction method and its polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was carried out by using specific primer of 16s rDNA gene and PCR products were run on gel giving an amplicon size of 700 bp. Our study shows that Spirulina can be grown in lab conditions by optimizing the physico-chemical growth requirements.

Key words: Amplicon, biomass, physico-chemical, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), Spirulina.