The expression of mRNAs coding for 1-deoxyxylulose-5-phosphate synthase (DXS) and phytoene synthase (PSY) were studied in Dunaliella salina grown under nitrogen-sufficient (NS) and nitrogen-limited (NL) conditions. Under NS conditions growth was 2.5 times higher than under NL conditions. No differences were found in chlorophyll a content per cell, and total carotenoid content per cell was 5.33 pg 1(-1) for the NS treatment and 7.76 pg 1(-1) for the NL. DXS transcripts exhibited diminished expression under NL conditions, peaking at day 15 of cultivation in both treatments. Simultaneously, PSY transcripts exhibited constant expression under both conditions. These results suggest that these genes play an important role in the balance of photosynthetic pigments during pigment accumulation.

An isolate of Dunaliella salina (DUNS-1) and other two isolates (DUNS-2 and DUNS-3), collected from coastal lagoons with 14 and 30% (w/v) of NaCl, respectively, were analyzed under different saline conditions. Glycerol (380 mg l(-1)) and carotene (5.9 mg l(-1)) contents for DUNS-2 were 0.3 and 10 times higher than DUNS-3, even though both isolates were collected from the same lagoon and share a similar ribosomal DNA sequence.

The accession numbers for the Dunaliella salina isolates reported in this study are FJ360756, FJ360757 and FJ360758 for DUNS-1, -2 and -3, respectively, both in the text and in Fig. 4.