is defined as any technique that uses living

marine organisms (or parts of these

organisms) to make or modify products, to
improve plants or animals, or to develop
microorganisms for specific uses.

The marine environment covers almost 71%
of the Earths surface and contains 97% of the
Earths available water.
Oceans are where the first forms of life originated
over four billion years ago, and they play important
roles in maintaining the Earths ecosystems. They are
also a large source of food for many other
organisms, including humans.

There is still much that is not known about marine
environments and marine organisms, because many
marine environments are very difficult to explore
Five major areas in marine research:
1. Identifying bioactive compounds produced by marine
organisms and elucidation of their function and mode of
action.
2. Increasing our understanding of the environmental factors,
nutritional requirements, and genetic factors that control
the production of primary and secondary metabolites in
marine organisms.
3. Understanding the genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and
ecology of marine organisms.
4. Developing tools and diagnostics for the improvement of
health, reproduction, growth, and cultivation of marine
and freshwater organisms.
5. Developing bioremediation tools for better waste
processing and disposal, the clean-up of coastal areas, and
the remediation of oil spills.
Aquaculture

Many regions of the world have reduced fish and shellfish
stocks, with some areas closed to commercial fishing. People
are looking to aquaculture to maintain populations of
endangered marine organisms (called mariculture) in fresh
and salt water.

Many countries practice aquaculture, using low input
technologies to propagate, harvest, and market fish, algae,
crustaceans, and mollusks.

Because aquaculture can be harmful to the environment by
pollution, biotechnology may play a role in solving some
potential environmental problems.
Primary product of aquaculture is food, but it also produces
food supplements, natural products, medicinal compounds,
jewelry, and ornamental fish.

By the end of the 21st century, it is believed that
aquaculture products will contribute for 2025% of the
worlds fisheries production by weight.

Improved methods can lead to, not only increased
productivity, but also by-products of aquaculture and
agriculture can be used as feed or energy sources.
Aquaculture
Gastropod, Bivalve, and Crustacean Production

Organisms such as crabs, oysters, mussels, shrimp, and lobsters.

Many methods exist for raising these organisms, ranging from
using tanks to floating platforms

For example, faster growth, maturation, disease resistance, and
triploidy can be created by genetic manipulation of oysters:
a) Diploid chromosome number is normal in oysters.
b) Triploid oysters are generated by treating eggs with
cytochalasin B.



c) Cytochalasin B doubles the number of chromosomes so
that fertilization causes three sets of chromosomes inside
the egg.
d) These oysters are sterile and do not form reproductive
organs; they grow larger and faster than normal
oysters, and are also more flavorful and meatier.
e) An alternative procedure could be mating tetraploid
oysters with diploid oysters to generate the triploids,
due to safety concerns about cytochalasin B.
Gastropod, Bivalve, and Crustacean Production
Bivalves, such as oysters and gastropods, are cultured by
manipulating the reproductive cycle by using chemicals
such as hydrogen peroxide and aminobutyric acid
(GABA).
Genes are also being identified and cloned for the
production of more controlled culturing of abalone and
other shellfish.
Gastropod, Bivalve, and Crustacean
Production
Marine Animal Health

Marine animals are susceptible to protozoans, bacteria,
viruses, and fungi. Pollution also promotes pathogen growth
and hampers marine organism growth.

Biotechnology may provide early disease detection,
development and application of new antibiotics and
vaccines, and the development of pathogen-free animals.

Bacterial Disease:
1. Using antibacterial agents such as disinfectants and
antibiotics in ponds or pens.
2. Can lead to antibiotic resistance or humans
consuming antibiotics in animals.
Viral Disease:

Infectious hematopoietic necrosis (IHN) and infectious
pancreatic necrosis (IPN) are two of the most deadly viral
diseases in salmon.

Infected animals become carriers and must be destroyed,
and sometimes the whole habitat must be decontaminated.

Fish vaccines will greatly aid the fish industry, but very few
are available.
Marine Animal Health
Fish are not easily vaccinated; it is usually done by injection
or by immersing them in water with the vaccine. Using
ultrasound can facilitate vaccine entry into fish.

A recombinant vaccine against IHN is currently in testing.
The vaccine is produced by isolating and expressing genes
encoding viral proteins.6. Isolating and characterizing
marine metabolites may also aid in treatments.
Marine Animal Health
Algal Products

Algae are a very diverse group of
photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms that fall
into three major groups:
1. Chlorophyta (Green).
2. Rhodophyta (Red).
3. Phaeophyta (Brown).

In brown seaweeds such as kelp, alginates are
the main structural component of the cell wall
and intercellular matrix, which is the space
between cells. They are used as food thickeners
and stabilizers
Culturing algae

The red algae Porphyra (nori) has been a
food source in Japan for over 400 years. It is
cultured by collecting reproductive spores and
allowing them to grow on horizontal nets. The
algae is harvested, dried, and processed.

The algae Undaria(wakame) and
Laminaria (kombu) are grown in Japan and
China by seeding ropes with spores, placing
the ropes in tanks, and allowing the algae to
grow, before they are harvested and dried.
They are used in noodles, soups, salads, and
meats.
Alginic acids (alginates) and phycocolloid polysaccharides
(agar, carrageenans): Commercially produced in the early
twentieth century.
Used in food, industrial products, fertilizer, and energy
production.
Carrageenan is used as an extender in foods such as
evaporated milk and ice cream.
Agar is used mostly in foods, but is also used in
pharmaceuticals, in capsules, and in the laboratory, to make
gels for techniques such as gel electrophoresis.
The demand for these products is much more than the
amount of algae available, so genetic engineering might
improve strains and decrease the cost of products.
Culturing algae
is being examined as a way to increase the yields of products
such as agar:

a) Macroalgae (seaweed):

(1) Can be cultured by producing protoplast and callus
tissue from which algae can be regenerated.

(2) Cell and tissue culture can be used to select for new
genes or traits.

(3) Protoplast fusion allows for traits from two organisms to
be mixed.
Algal cell culture
b) Microalgae (green algae and cyanobacteria):
(1) Mostly as food, but also used as pigment sources such as -
carotene.
(2) Algae such as Spirulina and Chlorella are of much nutritional
value and have been consumed for nearly 500 years in places
such as Mexico and Africa. Spirulinais marketed today as dried
flakes that are used in fish food and Japanese food.
(3) Mass culturing, such as the spiral ponds that Spirulinais grown in,
allows large quantities to be grown and harvested in outdoor
ponds, possibly lowering production costs of products (Figure 8.6).
(4) Phycobiliproteins are pigments involved in algal photosynthesis,
and can be used as phycofluors, which can label biological
molecules.
(5) Algae may be an inexpensive way to harvest proteins in
developing countries where farmland is scarce.
Algal cell culture
SPIRULINA




CHLORELLA
Modern algal biotechnology involves genetic
manipulation to produce algae that grow faster, are
resistant to disease, make more of an important
metabolite, and produce new products.

Algae have potential uses in pharmaceuticals, as
fertilizers, as energy sources, and as cell cultures that can
produce new chemicals.

Many chemicals have been isolated from algae, but the
cost of research on these chemicals is too costly because of
the costs of screening efforts, difficulties in collecting
products, and the small amounts that products are
produced in.
Algal cell culture
Used to generate biomass from which cells and
metabolites can be obtained.

Occurs in large ponds or raceways, although cultured
cells can be used in bioreactors or fermenters, allowing for
the controlled culturing of algae.

Microalgae are usually used in culture, but macroalgae
also produce agar and agarose (apolysaccharide used in
electrophoresis gels).
Algal cell culture
Cell culture technology may contribute to increased
agar production.

Specialty chemicals such as proline can be produced
by algae such as Chlorella, along with hydrocarbons,
polysaccharides, and rare amino acids like
octopamine.

Cell culture is a high-cost operation, but the products
can be very profitable
Algal cell culture
Continued use and extraction of fossil fuels such as petroleum
and coal pose environmental hazards such as the increase of
gases, such as sulfur dioxide, in the atmosphere. Fossils fuels are
also a finite energy source.
Alternatives to fossil fuels may be photosynthetically
generated biomass:
1. Renewable and no damage to the environment.
Unfortunately, biomass is not economically competitive with
current sources of energy.
2. Biomass can be converted by bacteria to fuels such as
methane. The bacteria can be obtained from agricultural
wastes, estuaries, and high salt environments.
3. Biological gas production is not competitive with other
natural gas sources.

Fuels From Algae
4. Dunaliellais an alga that can produce glycerol, which can
be converted by bacteria to chemicals such as ethanol and
butanol, which can be used as fuels.

5. Algae can produce large amounts of hydrocarbons from
fatty acids that can be converted to or used directly as liquid
fuels.

6. Algae may also be genetically modified to make gasoline-
type fuels, since brown algae and cyanobacteria already
make small amounts from fatty acids.

7. Biotechnology may make biomass more viable by
enhancing photosynthesis to produce more of a fuel, or
modifying biomass to favor fuel production.
Fuels From Algae
Marine Natural Products and Their Medical Potential

1. Marine organisms produce many metabolites that have medical
potential because of their unique and sometimes unusual
chemical structures.

2. Secondary metabolites are more attractive because the
chemicals provide selective advantages to the organism currently
or at some point in evolution.

3. Chemicals are isolated, catalogued, and studied for
pharmaceutical potential or potential to control insect pests.

Medical Applications
4. New chemicals can be isolated and used to generate
new chemicals that have potential value.

5. About 20,000 chemicals have been isolated from the
worlds organisms, such as bacteria, sponges, corals,
and jellyfish.

6. Products from marine organisms such as sponges, sea
stars, and starfish may show a similar significant and
untapped promise to plant products, which have only
been studied in recent years.
Medical Applications
Many marine compounds are toxic to humans, but diluting
them sometimes exposes their therapeutic value.

Many compounds extracted show anticancer properties:
a) Didemnin B is effective against leukemia and
melanoma in mice, and is also an effective
immunosuppressive agent that could be used in organ
transplants to prevent organ rejection.
b) Dolastatins are effective against leukemia and
melanoma because they inhibit cell division, and may be
similar to the anticancer drug vinblastine, which is isolated
from the Madagascar periwinkle.
Anticancer and Antiviral Compounds
Many marine organisms produce secondary
metabolites with antibiotic properties. However, the
costs of isolation and screening chemicals do not allow
for the extensive characterization of potential
antibiotic compounds.

For example, squalamine has been isolated from the
dogfish and {has activity} against a wide variety of
fungi, bacteria, and protozoans.
Antibacterial Agents
Toxins are believed to be responsible in predation, defense from predators
and pathogenic organisms, and signal transduction in their nervous systems.

Toxins such as saxitoxin are produced by cyanobacteria and can be
incorporated into shellfish, which can cause paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Studied for antitumor, anticancer, and antiviral properties when their
concentrations are controlled. They are also useful in neurophysiology and
neuropharmacology research, and could be used as models for new
compounds.

Neurotoxins such as tetrodotoxin (produced by the puffer fish) can be
studied because they have specific targets such as receptors or ion channels,
and can be useful in studying neuron function.

Other examples of toxins in research include conotoxins from the
predatory cone snail, lophotoxinfrom the gorgonian Lophogorgia, and
dysidenin from sponges.
Marine Toxins
o Marine organisms can benefit terrestrial (land-based)
agriculture in several ways:

1. Cyanobacteria in the form of dried flakes can be
used as fertilizer.

2. Genes encoding tolerance to low temperatures
could be transferred to plants to possibly allow plants to
express these traits and survive at lower temperatures.

3. Genes from salt-tolerant organisms could be
transferred to plants to allow them to grow in high- salt
environments.
Terrestrial Agriculture
Transgenic techniques are used to
introduce desirable traits into fish, primarily
to allow them to increase the growth and
weight of cultured finfish.

Fish have large and transparent eggs,
allowing it to be easy for gene transfer.

The methods available to create
transgenic fish include electroporation,
microinjection into the egg, and injection
through the micropyle, which is the space in
the egg where sperm enter.
Transgenic Fish.
Most fish eggs are injected within an hour
after fertilization, because they are released
from the female and the first division of the
egg occurs one hour after fertilization.

Salmonoid eggs are more difficult to inject
because they have a hard outer covering
called the chorion

Survival rates for microinjected fish
embryos are much higher (35%80%) than
mammals, with 10%70% of the fish being
transgenic.
Transgenic Fish.
Transgenic fish may be able to resist freezing temperatures
by producing antifreeze proteins isolated from winter
flounder, which survive in subzero temperatures.

Most transgenic fish studies have focused on the effects of
growth hormone genes:
1. Aims to modify fish to allow them to grow faster,
and larger.
2. Studies have been done on catfish and salmon.
3. Male fish have been studied because they grow
quicker and larger than females.

Transgenic Fish
Transgenic fish may some day be engineered to be
disease-resistant.
Environmental concerns over transgenic fish include:
1. Fish may not remain isolated in commercial
facilities.
2. Fish may alter trophic food webs, disrupting
native fish populations.
3. May displace wild counterparts if placed in new
environments.
4. Biological and physical controls, like isolation and
the elimination of reproductive capabilities, are needed to
prevent release of transgenic fish into the environment.
Transgenic Fish
Fluorescent Fish Pets.
In 2001, genetically engineered fish were created at the
National Taiwan University as a research tool.

The fish contain a gene that encodes for a fluorescent
protein that allows the fish to glow bright green when a
black light shines on them.

Other colors have been developed, such as fluorescent
red and a half-green, half-red fish.

The fish were first marketed in Taiwan by the Taikong
Corporation, and then they were marketed in the Untied
States, although Europe has been resistant to them.
Biotech Revolution