Application of Artificial Neural Network and Genetic Algorithm Modeling for In Vitro Regeneration of Seaweed Seedling Production.

Marine macro-algae, commonly known as "seaweed," are used in everyday commodity products worldwide for food, feed, and biostimulant for plants and animals and continue to be one of the conspicuous components of world aquaculture production. However, the application of ANN in seaweeds remains limited. Here, we described how to perform ANN-based machine learning modeling and GA-based optimization to enhance seedling production for implications on commercial farming. The critical steps from seaweed seedling explant preparation, selection of independent variables for laboratory culture, formulating experimental design, executing ANN Modelling, and implementing optimization algorithm are described.

A metabolomic snapshot through NMR revealed differences in phase transition during the induction of reproduction in Ulva ohnoi (Chlorophyta).

The present study deals with the metabolomic status of Ulva cells undergoing phase transition (vegetative, determination and differentiation) when exposed to different abiotic conditions. The objective was to study whether metabolite changes occurring during the phase transition reveal any commonality among differential abiotic conditions. The phase transition was followed through microscopic observations and 1H NMR characterization at 0 h, 24 h, and 48 h after the incubation of the thallus under abiotic conditions, such as different salinities (20-35 psu), temperatures (20-35 °C), photoperiods (18 : 6, 12 : 12, and 6 : 18 D/N), light intensities (220, 350, and 500 µmol photons m-2 s-1), nitrate (0.05-0.2 g L-1) and phosphate (0.05-0.2 g L-1) concentrations. Microscopic analysis revealed the role of all abiotic conditions except variable salinity and phosphate concentration in phase transition. NMR analysis revealed that glucose increased in the determination phase [7.58 to 9.62 normalized intensity (AU)] and differentiation phase (5.85 to 6.41 AU) from 20 °C to 25 °C temperature. Coniferyl aldehyde increased in vegetative (5.79 to 6.83 AU) and differentiation (6.66 to 7.40 AU) phases from 20 °C to 30 °C temperature. The highest average (22.97) was found in photoperiod (average range = 0-122.91) and the highest SD (24.73) in salinity (SD range = 1.86-57.04) in region 9 (creatinine and cysteine) of the differentiation phase. A total of 30 metabolites were identified under the categories of sugars, amino acids, and aromatic compounds. The present study will aid in understanding the mechanisms underlying cell differentiation during reproduction. The result may serve as an important reference point for future studies, besides helping in controlling seedling preparation for commercial farming as well as the management of rapid green tide formation.

Biology, farming and applications of economically important red seaweed Gracilaria edulis (S. G. Gmelin) P. C. Silva: A concise review.

Gracilaria edulis is one of the most studied agarophytes, especially in tropical regions like India because of its natural abundance. Apart from the Indian peninsula, it is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions. The taxonomy of G. edulis is evolving; currently G. edulis is the taxonomically accepted name, however several phylogenetic and morphological investigations supported its inclusion in the genus Hydropuntia. In addition to the conventional farming methods like the tube net and raft methods which use clonally propagated seed material, spore-based planting materials like carpospores have been employed to cultivate G. edulis. Co-cultivation with shrimp farm wastewater has also been practised to make the cultivation economically viable and environmentally sustainable as the seaweed could provide an efficient ecosystem service by up taking nitrogen from the shrimp waste. Like other seaweed cultivation systems, farming of G. edulis is also infested by various epiphytes like Ulva, Cladophora, Ceramium, Centroceras, Hypnea and Padina as well as grazed by fishes like Monodactylus, Pelates and Pteroscirtes which decrease the growth and ultimately result in low yield of agar, seaweed sap and other value added products. Food grade agar produced by this seaweed is an important resource and the current review focusses on the latest extraction technologies. Further, there also is evidence based application of plant bio-stimulant derived from G. edulis feedstock which has proven to be highly effective in enhancing the yield by 10-33% in field trials of nine cash crops. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10811-023-02955-8.

Perspectives and Attitudes towards the Functional and Safety Aspects of Seaweeds for Edible Applications in India.

Seaweeds are inevitable resources of nutrition bearing favorable rheological characteristics, which has resulted in their inclusion in a variety of daily consumer products. India, with its vast coastline and over 1000 species of seaweeds, presents tremendous potential to bring this resource into nutraceuticals and the food sector. The present survey was designed for the Indian population, which was further classified according to diet preferences, age groups, gender and various occupations. Their perceptions regarding nutritional aspects, sensory views, safety hazards and resource reliability were recorded. Among all groups studied, gender represented significant differences upon the various safety opinions recorded (p < 0.001) compared to the occupations, age groups and diet preferences studied. In addition, the dataset revealed the pro-phycological behavior of consumers subjected to vital concerns about bioresource reliability and pre-processing to avoid health hazards related to wild harvest or on-shore cultivated samples. In addition, consumer responses also revealed potential inhibitory factors in edible applications such as taste and smell. This study suggests that collaborative efforts among media, culinary experts and phycologists could play a pivotal role in promoting seaweeds in the rapidly expanding food sector industry of India.

Variation in the proximate composition of edible marine macroalga Ulva rigida collected from different coastal zones of India.

Several species of cosmopolitan marine macroalgal genus Ulva (Chlorophyta) are economically important due to high growth, carbohydrate, protein and lipid content. Nevertheless, analysis pertaining these traits of any species has by no means been explicitly investigated. We herein investigated 109 samples of U. rigida from fifteen locations of Indian coast for carbohydrate, protein and lipid content suitable for further development of scaled-up production. The carbohydrate, protein and lipid content ranged from 16.63 ± 1.07 to 65.93 ± 0.49% dry weight, 4.14 ± 0.45 to 26.0 ± 1.43% dry weight and 0.8 ± 0.08 to 3.1 ± 0.04% dry weight respectively. Principal component analysis provides an interpretable overview of main information enclosed in a multidimensional data set satisfactorily explained 72.1% of the total variability in the present data, with principal component 1 accounting for 38.7% and principal component 2 for 33.4% of the total variation. The study confirmed that the strain collected from Gopnath, Gujarat possesses high potential for industrial exploitation due to its high carbohydrate level. Growing this alga on large-scale might pave ways for socio-economic development of coastal populace.

Integration of protein extraction with a stream of byproducts from marine macroalgae: A model forms the basis for marine bioeconomy.

The present study describes an advanced biorefinery model for marine macroalgae that assumes significant importance in the context of marine bio-economy. The method investigated in this study integrates the extraction of crude proteins with recovery of minerals rich sap, lipids, ulvan and cellulose from fresh biomass of Ulva lactuca. The protein content extracted was 11±2.12% on dry weight basis with recovery efficiency of 68.75±4.01%. The amino acid composition of crude protein fraction showed iso-leucine as the most abundant amino acid with 16.51±0.03% followed by histidine, arginine, tyrosine, serine, aspartic acid, threonine, phenyl alanine, leucine, alanine, lysine, glycine and glutamic acid (0.22±0.24%). The digestibility of protein was as high as 85.86±5.92% indicating its suitability for use in food supplements. The protein production with co-recovery of other products would not only result in effective utilisation marine macroalgal resources but also forms the basis for marine bio-economy.

Ultrasound assisted methods for enhanced extraction of phycobiliproteins from marine macro-algae, Gelidium pusillum (Rhodophyta).

Extraction of phycobiliproteins (R-phycoerythrin, R-PE and R-phycocyanin, R-PC) from macro-algae is difficult due to the presence of large polysaccharides (agar, cellulose etc.) present in the cell wall which offer major hindrance for cell disruption. The present study is aimed at developing most suitable methodology for the primary extraction of R-PE and R-PC from marine macro-algae, Gelidium pusillum(Stackhouse) Le Jolis. Such extraction of phycobiliproteins by using ultrasonication and other conventional methods such as maceration, maceration in presence of liquid nitrogen, homogenization, and freezing and thawing (alone and in combinations) is reported for the first time. Standardization of ultrasonication for different parameters such as ultrasonication amplitude (60, 90 and 120µm) and ultrasonication time (1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10mins) at different temperatures (30, 35 and 40°C) was carried out. Kinetic parameters were estimated for extraction of phycobiliproteins by ultrasonication based on second order mass transfer kinetics. Based on calorimetric measurements, power, ultrasound intensity and acoustic power density were estimated to be 41.97W, 14.81W/cm2 and 0.419W/cm3, respectively. Synergistic effect of ultrasonication was observed when employed in combination with other conventional primary extraction methods. Homogenization in combination with ultrasonication resulted in an enhancement in efficiency by 9.3% over homogenization alone. Similarly, maceration in combination with ultrasonication resulted in an enhancement in efficiency by 31% over maceration alone. Among all the methods employed, maceration in combination with ultrasonication resulted in the highest extraction efficiency of 77 and 93% for R-PE and R-PC, respectively followed by homogenization in combination with ultrasonication (69.6% for R-PE and 74.1% for R-PC). HPLC analysis was carried out in order to ensure that R-PE was present in the extract and remained intact even after processing. Microscopic studies indicated a clear relation between the extraction efficiency of phycobiliproteins and degree of cell disruption in a given primary extraction method. These combination methods were found to be effective for extraction of phycobiliproteins from rigid biomass of Gelidium pusillum macro-algae and can be employed for downstream processing of biomolecules also from other macro-algae.

Fatty acid profiling of tropical marine macroalgae: an analysis from chemotaxonomic and nutritional perspectives.

The lipid and fatty acid (FA) compositions for 100 marine macroalgae were determined and discussed from the context of chemotaxonomic and nutritional perspectives. In general, the lipid contents in macroalgae were low (2.3-20 mg/g fr. wt.) but with substantially high amounts of nutritionally important polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as LA, ALA, STA, AA, EPA and DHA, that ranged from 10% to 70% of TFAs. More than 90% of the species showed nutritionally beneficial n6/n3 ratio (0.1:1-3.6:1) (p≤0.001). A closer look at the FA data revealed characteristic chemotaxonomic features with C18 PUFAs (LA, ALA and STA) being higher in Chlorophyta, C20 PUFAs (AA and EPA) in Rhodophyta while Phaeophyta depicted evenly distribution of C18 and C20 PUFAs. The ability of macroalgae to produce long-chain PUFAs could be attributed to the coupling of chloroplastic FA desaturase enzyme system from a photosynthetic endosymbiont to the FA desaturase/elongase enzyme system of a non-photosynthetic eukaryotic protist host. Further, the principal component analysis segregated the three macroalgal groups with a marked distinction of different genera, families and orders, Hierarchical cluster analyses substantiated the phylogenetic relationships of all orders investigated except for those red algal taxa belonging to Gigartinales, Ceramiales, Halymeniales and Rhodymeniales for which increased sampling effort is required to infer a conclusion. Also, the groups deduced from FA compositions were congruent with the clades inferred from nuclear and plastid genome sequences. This study further indicates that FA signatures could be employed as a valid chemotaxonomic tool to differentiate macroalgae at higher taxonomic levels such as family and orders.