Amount Awarded: $25,000
Brown algae, a diverse group of marine organisms that encompass seaweeds such as kelps, are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet. They are both harvested from the wild and cultivated as sources of food, biochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and energy. The recently established International Bioeconomy and Macroalgae Center (IBMC) at UC-Berkeley aims to facilitate the growth of a global brown algae bioeconomy. A major barrier to achieving this goal is the lack of knowledge, compared to animals and plants, of the molecular processes that control brown algae development and biomass accumulation. This project develops a collaboration between researchers at NMBU and UC-Berkeley to conduct a developmental transcriptome study specifically the economically and ecologically important sugar kelp Saccharina latissima and the giant kelp Macrocystis pyrifera, to investigate gene expression changes during the transition from 2D to 3D growth—a key phase for biomass increase. We will build on our first pilot transcriptome study identifying the presence in S. latissima of gene sequences for calcium-activated proteases that play key roles in cell cycle regulation and development in eukaryotes. Their presence in brown algae suggests an evolutionarily ancient mechanism for regulating growth and architecture shared with plants and animals. The project aims to 1) Complete computational annotation of the transcriptome using the new S. latissima genome and the KEGG database; 2) Perform gene ontology (GO) enrichment analysis to identify conserved functions and pathways and 3) Identify gene regulatory modules related to cell division, stem cell maintenance, and hormone response pathways (e.g., auxin, cytokinin) that may directly control brown algal growth and development. Future comparative transcriptomics across these brown algae and the model brown alga Ectocarpus siliculosis will help uncover conserved as well as algal-specific developmental mechanisms that can via genome editing enhance biomass for food, energy, and climate mitigation.