A study on molecular diversity of Dunaliella algae species in some of Urmia Lake's stations

Dunaliella is a dominant unicellular Eukaryote alga genus in the Urmia Lake. Recently، the density of this genus has been vastly decreased owning to Urmia Lake intense desiccation. This study investigated the species diversity of Dunaliella in Urmia Lake stations. Species determination was based upon Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method using the combinations of 18srDNA gene primers. The sampling and subsequent isolation of the Dunaliella species from the Urmia Lake stations revealed that in spite of the Urmia Lake intense crisis and severe density decrease of the algae، at least 4 species of Dunaliella namely D. bardawil، D. parva، D. salina and D. tertiolecta existed in the studied stations of the Urmia Lake.