Molecular Research of the Seaweeds

Dear Colleagues,

Seaweeds, being multicellular marine macroalgae, are primary producers that occupy a pivotal role in maintaining the ecological health of marine ecosystems. In aquaculture, numerous seaweed species are cultivated and harvested for food, feed, and biofuel production. Seaweeds are also used as biofactories as part of the initial stages of the manufacturing of wealth of other useful biomolecules. The usefulness and versatility of seaweeds as an aquacultural resource are readily demonstrated by the current estimates of a global market value of close to USD 15 billion.

Based on their pigmentation, multicellular marine macroalgae are typically classified into one of three groupings, including the red (rhodophyta), brown (phaeophyta), and green (chlorophyta) seaweed groups. Among these groupings, individual species which harbor desirable mutations affecting cell division and overall growth rate, pigmentation, and vegetative or reproductive development have been identified; however, to date, causative molecular alterations leading to the expression of these desirable phenotypic traits remains unknown. Failure to identify such mutations partly results from the tremendous genetic variation within and across the seaweed groupings, together with a current lack of available effective genetic tools for the molecular characterization of seaweeds. For example, only a low degree of gene order and structure has been identified across the 100-or-so micro- and macroalgae species where genome sequence-based resources exist.

Considering the tremendous ecological and aquacultural value of seaweeds, it is highly surprising that seaweed research has only more recently entered the realms of molecular biology and the ‘omics’ era of scientific research. Therefore, currently, the need to develop high-throughput omics tools, such as genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic approaches, to support the findings of traditional seaweed biological research, cannot be understated. Towards initiating this goal, this Special Issue of Plants invites the submission of original research studies or review articles on the current status of the molecular biology research and of other ‘omics’ approaches used in either the red, brown, or green seaweed groupings to advance our current molecular knowledge.

Prof. Dr. Scott F. Cummins
Dr. Andrew Eamens
Guest Editors

Dr. Zubaida Patwary
Guest Editor Assistant

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• seaweeds
• multicellular marine macroalgae
• molecular biology
• omics