The project titled “Determination of Horseshoe Island Coastal Microalgae and Cyanobacteria Diversity, Creation of Culture Collection and Evaluation of General Biotechnological Characteristics of Cultured Species” led by Prof.Dr. Turgay ÇAKMAK, faculty member of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Istanbul Medeniyet University has been supported by TUBITAK as part of 1001 TUBITAK Industrial R&D Projects Support Program.
The establishment of a scientific research base in the Antarctic continent started with the significant increase in the financial resources allocated to protect and sustainably use for our country’s terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity. Within the scope of the project, it was aimed to determine the microalgae diversity of Horseshoe Island, located in the Antarctic continent, where the base is being established. Thanks to the richness of coastal bacterial species on the island, it was possible to purify and culture the microalgae, to classify them by morphological and phylogenetic analysis, and to create a microalgae culture collection preserved by cryopreservation. With the project, it was aimed to carry out studies on the evaluation of the general biotechnological characteristics of the cultured species, and the studies planned in line with the objectives were carried out successfully.
The microalgae culture collection purified within the scope of the project and preserved by cryopreservation was made available on a website (www.imuasya.org). In addition, by evaluating some general analysis data obtained with the project, a new TUBITAK 1001 research project named “Mycosporin-like amino acids of microalgae isolated from Horseshoe Island (Antarctica): Evaluation of extraction, purification and economic potential” (Project # 122Y136) was initiated.
