Dear Shiladitya Ghosh,

yes there are many places where u can get your samples identified...

you may visit YPSI page and contact them, they will get you a right person to identify your samples. YPSI is mainly for helping algal researchers. 

with regards

https://ypsi2algae.yolasite.com/members.php

Please contact any Phycologist for the identification, 

Dear Shiladitya

For algae and cyanobacteria, you can follow Desikachary book. After that for molecular identified, you can contact Eurofins India pvt Ltd,  bangalore 

Regards

Rabbul 

Contact Centre for Conservation and Utilization of Blue Green Algae (CCUBGA), Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi

Thank you everyone for your valuable suggestions and the links. I hope I will get a reliable source of identification out of these.

Regards,

Shiladitya

Hi Shiladitya,

in our lab, we use PCR to distinguish microalgae from cyanobacteria. Visual inspection (color and microscopy) also can indicate which type organism you have, but it is not very accurate, specially with the strains that are very small.

In short, with the DNA of unialgal axenic samples extracted, we perform PCR using primers designed to amplify the 16S rRNA genes in prokaryotic organisms, which includes cyanobacteria, or primers designed to amplify the eukaryotic 5.8S rRNA and its surrounding spacer sequences (ITS1 and ITS2). Positive results for one or other pair of primers can indicate if the sample is a cyanobacteria or a microalgae.

Usually we use these PCR products to identify the samples by sequencing and comparing the obtained data with the information available on GenBank and ITS2 database (http://its2.bioapps.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/).

If you want more detailed info about the microalgae identification process that we perform in our lab, you can read our paper entitled "DNA Barcoding Green Microalgae Isolated from Neotropical Inland Waters".

For cyanobacteria, we are performing the same process described in our paper but using the primers FW-16S_CYA359F and REV-16S_CYA781R described by Nübel in the paper "PCR primers to amplify 16S rRNA genes from cyanobacteria".

Regards,

Hugo

Article PCR primers to amplify 16S rRNA genes from Cyanobacteria

Article DNA Barcoding Green Microalgae Isolated from Neotropical Inland Waters

Hi Hugo,

Thank you so much for putting in such effort to clarify my query in detail. From your explanation, I understood that this is simply the best procedure to distinguish between a cyanobacteria and algae.  Unfortunately, in our institution we do not have such extensive molecular biology facilities to perform the PCR and related techniques for 16S rRNA analysis and I, personally lack the expertise on molecular biology. So, I am trying to look for other institutes and experts in India who can perform the procedure indicated by you. Hopefully, I will get one soon.

Thanks again for providing the publication links, they are really interesting.  

Regards,

Shiladitya