STUDIES OF BIOENERGY COMPOUNDS AND MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION OF BOTRYOCOCCENE SYNTHASE GENE FROM BOTRYOCOCCUS BRAUNII KUTZING.

Advanced generation biofuel production from microalgae Botrycoccus braunii was investigated. The micro alga Botryococcus was first discovered and described by Kutzing in 1849 which has drawn more attention in the recent decades due to high accumulation of different types of hydrocarbons. The microalga Botryococcus braunii showed the growth kinetic and biochemical parameters include dry biomass, carbohydrate, protein and lipids. The extraction of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) from the biomass of the microalga B. braunii were analyzed for biofuel compounds using gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR) the percentage of FAME were resulted. The presence of esters, alkanes and alkenes confirms the presence of hydrocarbons from the FAME. The phylogenetic relationship of the microalga Botryococcus braunii was analyzed by ClustalW and Neighbor joining method in MEGA5 program using the botryococcene gene. The dendrogram clearly shows that the isolated microalgal strain belongs to Botryococcus braunii.