Detection of genetic variations in marine algae Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta) induced by heavy metal pollutants

Ulva lactuca (Chlorophyta) green macroalgae has been successfully used as bioindicator for heavy metals pollution in ecosystems. Random amplified microsatellite polymorphism (RAMP) marker was employed to investigate genetic DNA pattern variability in green U. lactuca 5 days after exposure to Cu, Pb, Cd and Zn heavy metals stress. Genomic template stability (GTS%) value was employed as a qualitative DNA changes measurement based on RAMP technique. In this respect, estimated GTS% value was recorded to be 65.215, 64.630, 59.835 and 59.250% for Pb, Cu, Cd and Zn treatment, respectively. Moreover, genetic similarity (GS) induced by the above heavy metals was also evaluated to measure genetic distance between algae treated plants and their respective control. In this respect, estimated GS values generated by RAMP marker ranged between 0.576 (between control and Zn treatment) - 0.969 (for both case; between Pb and Cu and between Cd and Zn treatment) with an average of 0.842. Based upon data presented herein based on variant bands number (VB), GTS% and GS values; the present study could be suggested that Pb and Cu followed similar tendency at genomic DNA changes. Similar finding was also observed with Cd and Zn ions. Thereby, RAMP marker successfully highlighted DNA change patterns induced by heavy metals stress.