COLLECTION, ISOLATION, PURIFICATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MICROALGAE FROM PADDY SOIL AT KADAWA IRRIGATION FARMLAND, KANO STATE

Abstract

The success of any microalgal research involves effective methods for sampling environments, isolation, purification and the maintenance of algal strains. The isolation of soil microalgae poses a great challenge since the soil is a home for thousands of different species, including algal species, bacteria, viruses and fungi. As such cultures are susceptible to contamination, which may interfere with algal structure, biomass yield and the erroneous identification of species for molecular genetic analysis. The most common methods for isolation and purification of microalgae are the single cell isolation, serial dilution and a streak plate. This procedure is tedious, time consuming, demands precision and expertise and may not yield results. Thus in the present study, an attempt was made to modify these methods for the isolation of soil microalgae. With the modification, three microalgal sp. were isolated, purified and identified (viz Chlorella vulgaris, Microcystis aeruginosa and Scenedesmus obliquus) in a simplified manner.