SPIRULINA

CLASSIFICATION

• Domain: Bacteria
• Phylum: Cyanobacteria
• Class: Cyanophyceae
• Order: Spirulinales
• Family: Spirulinaceae
 INTRODUCTION

• Spirulina are multicellular and filamentous blue-green algae that has gained
considerable popularity in the health food industry and increasingly as a protein and
vitamin supplement to aquaculture diets.
• It grows in water, can be harvested and processed easily and has very high macro- and
micro-nutrient contents.
• It has long been used as a dietary supplement by people living close to the alkaline
lakes where it is naturally found.
• Spirulina is a primitive organism originating some 3.5 billion years ago that has
established the ability to utilize carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater as a nutrient
source for their reproduction.
• Spirulina is a photosynthesizing cyanophyte (blue-green algae) that grows vigorously
in strong sunshine under high temperatures and highly alkaline conditions.
MORPHOLOGY
• Spirulina is symbiotic, multicellular and filamentous blue-green
microalgae with symbiotic bacteria that fix nitrogen from air.
• Spirulina can be rod- or disk-shaped. Their main photosynthetic
pigment is phycocyanin, which is blue in colour. These bacteria
also contain chlorophyll a and carotenoids.
• Some contain the pigment phycoythrin, giving the bacteria a red
or pink colour. Spirulina are photosynthetic and therefore
autotrophic.
• Spirulina reproduce by binary fission.
THALLUS STUCTURE

• Unicellular alga
• Trichome consists of single cylindrical cell
wounded into a loose or close helix.
• The protoplast is differentiated into
pigmented chromoplasm and central
centroplasm.
• Cyanophycin granules are absent.
 REPRODUCTION

• In spirulina, reproduction takes place asexually by binary fission.

• Sexual reproduction is absent.

BINARY FISSION
• A single cell is splitting into two cells.
• The division eventually completely divides the bacterium in half and
known as Cytokinesis.
• Each cell is now genetically identical and results in the formation of
two identical daughter cells.
 ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

• It provides an easily digestible high (c. 60 percent) protein product with

high levels of β-carotene, vitamin B12, iron and trace minerals and the rare
essential fatty acid γ-linolenic acid (GLA).
• Its production occupies only a small environmental footprint, with
considerable efficiencies in terms of water use, land occupation and energy
consumption when compared to traditional terrestrial crops;
• Its production can be conducted at a number of different scales, from
household “pot culture” to intensive commercial development over large
areas;
 REFERENCES

• Abo-Shady, A.M., Abou-El-Soud , S.M., El-Raheem, A., El- Shanshoury, R. & Mahmoud, Y.A.G..
1992. Protoplasts from the cyanobacterium, Spirulina platensis. World J. Microbiology &
Biotech., 8: 385–386.
• Bhattacharya, S. & Shivaprakash, M.K. 2005. Evaluation of three Spirulina species grown
under similar conditions for their growth and biochemicals. J. Sci. Food Agric., 85: 333–336.

• https://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Spirulina#
THANK YOU