Molecular identification of beta-carotene hyper-producing strains of Dunaliella from saline environments using species-specific oligonucleotides

Sequence-specific-oligonucleotides analysis has been used to identify Dunaliella bardawil, D. salina and D. parva from hypersaline environments based on their structural features of introns from the 18S rDNA. Carotenogenic and halophilic strains such as D. bardawil and D. salina were identified as harboring II and I introns within 18S rDNA, respectively. This is the first report on the existence of D. bardawil in saline water bodies of Mexico and Latin America.