Deliverables

WS1 – Isolation of microalgae native of the Ionian Sea and creation of collection

1. Isolation of marine microalgae of the Ionian Sea.
2. Creation of a collection of microalgae of the Ionian Sea.
3. Website.

WS2 – Identification of microalgae isolates

1. Molecular identification of microalgae native of the Ionian Sea. Deposit of enhanced 18S rRNA sequences and the ITS region in international databases (NCBI).
2. Phylogenetic analysis of the isolated marine species of microalgae. Construction of phylogenetic trees.
3. Correlation between the habitat of isolation and the distribution of the isolated strains of microlgae.
4. Phenotypical characteristics of the isolated strains.
5. Dissemination of WS1 and WS2 results in international journals and/or conferences.

WS3 – Cultivation of selected microalgae in photo-bioreactors

1. Kinetics of growth of microalgae and lipid biosynthesis in (a) balanced growth, (b) limiting for growth (which presumably favour lipid accumulation) and (c) dark (which favour lipid degradation) conditions.
2. Lipid and lipid fractions content in PUFAs.
3. Quantitative data on polysaccharides, proteins and pigments.
4. Evaluation of protein content and amino acid profile.
5. Images of microalgae cells in SEM and TEM, data on microanalysis of membranes and subcellular organelles of microalgae cells. Photos of reserve lipids under fluorescent and confocal microscope.
6. Adaptive evolution studies. Comparison of kinetics and physiology of evolved and wild strains of microalgae.
7. Dissemination of WS3 results. Publication in international journals and/or conferences.