>Date: Tue, 11 Feb 1997 08:52:15 +0930
>Subject: Info. re Dunaliella salina
>
>Dear Aqua-L'ers, below is a copy of the response I received from Dr Gary
Wikfors concerning the biochemical properties of Dunaliella salina.
>
>Dr Wikfors address is: Gary.Wikfors at noaa.gov
>
>
>We ourselves have done very little work with D. salina, but quite a bit
with D. tertiolecta. Our research application has been chiefly to bivalve
feeding. As such, D. tertiolecta has proven to be a relatively poor food.
We have attributed this poor food quality for bivalves to lipid deficiencies
in Dunaliella; I expect that the qualitative deficiencies apply to D. salina
as well, since these deficiencies are characteristic of all chlorophyte
algae. Chlorophytes produce no fatty acids longer than 18 carbons. Oysters
and scallops (and maybe some clams) are unable to elongate 18-carbon fa's,
and require 20- or 22-carbon fa's for membrane synthesis. In addition
oysters and scallops require certain sterols in the diet for reasons similar
to the fatty acid story. We did analyse (collaborators at the University of
Maryland did the analysis) D. salina for sterols and found none of the
required compounds. As bivalve feed, Dunaliella has clear deficiencies,
although there is some potential to use Dunaliella as a protein and
carbohydrate source in a mixed diet including high-lipid (and the right
lipid) algae.
>
>From a practical standpoint, we have found D. tertiolecta to be a very good
feed for growing rotifers, although rotifers grown on Dunaliella alone are
again deficient in lipids when fed directly to larval marine fish. We
enrich these rotifers with T-ISO and Nannochloropsis before feeding, or,
more recently, have adopted green-water culture techniques for fish larvae
with daily inputs of rotifers, T-ISO, and Nannochloropsis.
>
>Gross biochemical profiles of D. tertiolecta are published in several of
our articles. I will send reprints to you if you do not have them already
(I will need your mailing address). Also look into the work of Ami
Ben-Amotz in Israel; he published a great deal on Dunaliella, including
several articles on D. salina. I don't know if any of these articles
include general biochemical profiles, though.
>
>Thanks again!
>
>Regards,
>
>Stephen Madigan
>madigan.stephen at pi.sa.gov.au
>South Australian Research and Development Institute
>Aquatic Sciences
>Aquaculture
>
Adrian.
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Adrian R. Tappin
"Home of the Rainbowfish"
http://www.ecn.net.au/~atappin/home.htm
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