科研之友
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摘要
A hundred years have passed since the description of the genus Dunaliella, the unicellular green alga which is responsible for most of the primary production in hypersaline environments worldwide. First sighted in 1838 in saltern evaporation ponds in the south of France by Michel Felix Dunal [1], it was named after its discoverer by Teodoresco in 1905 [2].In the century that has elapsed since its formal description, Dunaliella has become a convenient model organism for the study of salt adaptation in algae. The establishment of the concept of organic compatible solutes to provide osmotic balance was largely based on the study of Dunaliella species. Moreover, the massive accumulation of 汕-carotene by some strains under suitable growth conditions has led to interesting biotechnological applications.The present paper provides an historical survey of research on Dunaliella, from the early work in the 19th century to the thorough taxonomic studies by Teodoresco, Hamburger, Lerche and others from the beginning of the 20th century onwards. It attempts to trace 每 often through quotations from the original articles 每 the origin of some of the most important breakthroughs that have contributed to our present understanding of this alga that plays such a key role in many hypersaline environments.Extensive additional information on the alga can be found in a review by Ginzburg [3], in the multi-author review edited by Avron and Ben-Amotz [4], and in my monograph on halophilic microorganisms and their environments [5].The first description of a unicellular biflagellate red-colored alga living in concentrated brines (Fig. 1) was given in 1838 by Dunal [1], who reported occurrence of the organism we know today as Dunaliella salina in the salterns of Montpellier, on the Mediterranean coast of France. He named the organisms observed Haematococcus salinus and Protococcus. The discovery of these algae was made in the framework of an investigation, invited by the Acad谷mie des Sciences,
