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Life Cycle-Based Selection of Elite Germplasm in Industrially Important Red Alga Gracilaria dura:Implications for Commercial Farming


Affiliations
1 Applied Phycology and Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSIR-CSMCRI), Bhavnagar 364 002, India
2 Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad 201 002, India
 

Agar-yielding seaweed commonly known as agarophytes are sourced for commercial exploitation from countries of the Middle East, Japan and to a certain extent from the Republic of Korea1. This industrially lucrative gel commands a high prize (US$ 18 kg–1) globally due to its natural high gelling strength and low gelling temperature compared to other seaweed hydrocolloids such as alginates (US$ 12 kg–1) and carrageenans (US$ 10.4 kg–1)2. The unique phycocolloid is being extracted from the cell walls of red seaweed species mostly from Gelidium, Gelidiella and Gracilaria. The agar trade annually requires about 125,200 dry tonne of biomass for the production of 14,500 t agar worth US$ 246 million3. The Moroccan government has now put restrictions on legal annual harvest of Gelidium to negate the decline of wild populations and thereby enforcing trade limits on export. This development has triggered agar scarcity in the global market. A recent trend indicates a shift, wherein Gracilaria is preferred as the raw material source consisting of over 91% of material supply chain (i.e. 114,100 dry t) with only about 9% (i.e. 11,100 dry t) represented by Gelidium3. Nevertheless, unlike other phycocolloids, where only a couple of species dominated the trade, several regional species are important in agar business, contributing immensely to the local economy4.
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  • Life Cycle-Based Selection of Elite Germplasm in Industrially Important Red Alga Gracilaria dura:Implications for Commercial Farming

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Authors

Santlal Jaiswar
Applied Phycology and Biotechnology Division, CSIR-Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSIR-CSMCRI), Bhavnagar 364 002, India
Vaibhav A. Mantri
Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad 201 002, India

Abstract


Agar-yielding seaweed commonly known as agarophytes are sourced for commercial exploitation from countries of the Middle East, Japan and to a certain extent from the Republic of Korea1. This industrially lucrative gel commands a high prize (US$ 18 kg–1) globally due to its natural high gelling strength and low gelling temperature compared to other seaweed hydrocolloids such as alginates (US$ 12 kg–1) and carrageenans (US$ 10.4 kg–1)2. The unique phycocolloid is being extracted from the cell walls of red seaweed species mostly from Gelidium, Gelidiella and Gracilaria. The agar trade annually requires about 125,200 dry tonne of biomass for the production of 14,500 t agar worth US$ 246 million3. The Moroccan government has now put restrictions on legal annual harvest of Gelidium to negate the decline of wild populations and thereby enforcing trade limits on export. This development has triggered agar scarcity in the global market. A recent trend indicates a shift, wherein Gracilaria is preferred as the raw material source consisting of over 91% of material supply chain (i.e. 114,100 dry t) with only about 9% (i.e. 11,100 dry t) represented by Gelidium3. Nevertheless, unlike other phycocolloids, where only a couple of species dominated the trade, several regional species are important in agar business, contributing immensely to the local economy4.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv117%2Fi11%2F1777-1778