Enabling sustainable seaweed aquaculture of sea lettuce - A biotechnological application of sporulation inhibitors to increase crop productivity

With the world’s population expected to reach about 10 billion by 2050 and agricultural production on its sustainable limits, there is an increasing demand for products from seaweed aquaculture to supply humanity with food and renewable materials.

Sea lettuces (Ulva spp.) are of increasing interest to the expanding seaweed industry due to their favourable nutritional and biochemical properties and productivity.

However, in many cultivations, productivity is limited by recurrent reproduction of Ulva, which disintegrates the seaweed and cause massive biomass losses.

In this project, we will use sporulation inhibitors (SIs) to develop a cultivation method that maintains the seaweed in a vegetative state and increases productivity.

These compounds are naturally produced by these seaweed to regulate reproduction and can be applied externally to inhibit the formation of reproductive tissue.

Using side streams from commercial Ulva cultivation, we will extract the SIs and apply them in tank-based cultivation to reduce reproductive biomass loss.

We will further identify their chemical structures using modern compound isolation techniques and state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation to pave the way for future synthetic industrial production and large-scale application in Ulva cultivation.

The results will offer new opportunities for the rising seaweed industry and contribute to the development of a sustainable blue economy.