Morphological and molecular characterization of newly isolated microalgal strain Neochloris aquatica SJ-1 and its high lipid productivity

Utilization of microalgal lipids for extraction of oil is going to open up promising avenues for sustainable biodiesel production. The most important difficulty in obtaining oil from microalgae is the selection of the right species. The studied algal strain was isolated from the artificial pond from the institute premises and cultured it under BG-11 medium. The strain was identified based on morphological and molecular marker (rbcL) which revealed that the strain is Neochloris aquatica SJ-1. Nile Red fluorescence methods have been successfully used for determination of lipids in microalgae. The total lipid content was 12% of its dry weight. Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis showed that major constituents of saturated fatty acid (SFA), monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) were 29.15±0.93%, 37.95±0.79%, and 32.90±1.71% respectively. Our results confirm that Neochloris aquatica SJ-1 is a promising candidate for the production of biodiesel based on SFA and MUFA contents.