Isoamyl relationships of six chlorella strains isolated from Damietta country, Egypt

ABSTRACT

Six strains of Chlorella were isolated as unialgal, then axenic cultures, starting from algal samples collected from different sites and habitats of Damietta county. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of isozymal systems for malate dehydrogenase, glutamate dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase, acid phosphatase and alpha-esterase was employed in an attempt to improve the current taxonomic status of such microalgae depending mainly on morphological criteria. Data had been clustered in the form of similarity matrices and dendrograms. The isozymal analyses for the six species and strains of the genus Chlorella do strengthen their differentiation into two species ellipsoids and vulgaris. Though members of each species showed isozymal similarities enough to keep them within one and the same species but none of those strains proved to be identical or even near to be identical in its isozymal patterns to any other member. This makes one think about them as different varieties instead of just keeping them as strains of the same species. The present work is an evidence that isozymal taxonomy could help in improving the taxonomic status of microlgae, especially when using several isozymal systems rather than just one or two systems