Marine Biotech

• Biotechnology is any technique that uses living marine organisms to make or modify products, improve plants or animals, or to develop microorganisms for specific uses
• Applications of marine biotechnology

  • Healthcare (bioactive compounds for new medicines)
  • Food and feed industries (antioxidants)
  • Energy industry (new biofuels)

  
• Marine water covers 75% of the Earth's surface and 80% of the earth's organisms live in aquatic ecosystems
• Why marine organisms are of great interest to scientists and industry

  • They represent a major proportion of the Earth's organisms
  • They have unique metabolic pathways and other adaptive functions
• Possibilities of utilizing aquatic organisms

  • Increasing the world's food supply
  • Restoring and protecting marine ecosystems
  • Identifying novel compounds for the benefit of human health and medical treatments
  • Improving seafood safety and quality
  • Discovering and developing new products with applications in the chemical industry
  • Seeking new approaches to monitor and treat disease
  • Increasing knowledge of biological and geochemical processes in the world's oceans

  
• Five primary research areas in marine biotechnology

  • Identifying bioactive compounds produced by marine organisms and elucidation of their function and mode of action
  • Increasing our understanding of the environmental factors, nutritional requirements, and genetic factors that control the production of primary and secondary metabolites in marine organisms
  • Understanding the genetics, biochemistry, physiology, and ecology of marine organisms
  • Developing tools and diagnostics for the improvement of health, reproductive, growth, and cultivation of marine and freshwater organisms
  • Developing bioremediation tools for better waste processing and disposal, the clean-up of coastal areas, and the remediation of oil spills

  
• Aquaculture


  The propagation of aquatic animals and plants at high densities in fresh, brackish, or salt water
• Products of aquaculture


  • Food for human and animal consumption
  • Food supplements
  • Natural products
  • Pharmaceuticals and medicines
  • Ornamental jewelry
  • Ornamental fish for home consumption
• Innovations in fish farming

  • Polyculture - An integrated aquaculture, raising more than one species in the same controlled environment
  • Hydrophonic systems - small volume water flowing systems in which vegetables (like tomato, and broccoli) or herbs are cultured in racks through wastewater from fish tanks can flow
• Marine animal health


  • Provides opportunities for improvement of the health of cultivated aquatic organisms (and prevent the transfer of diseases from cultivated and wild stocks)
  • Early detection of diseases
  • Understanding of organisms' susceptibility to disease and pathogen
  • Development and application of new antibiotics and vaccines
  • Development of pathogen-free stocks
• Algae


  Diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotes that are used throughout the world
• Algal products


  • Kelp
  • Alginates (alginic acid) from brown algae
• Alginates


  Used as food thickeners and stabilizers
• Microalgal products


  • Isotopic compounds
  • Phycobiliproteins
  • Pharmaceuticals
  • B-carotine
  • Vitamins A & E
  • Soil inocula
  • Amino acids
  • Marine oils
  • Methane
• Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) was discovered from jellyfish (Aequorea victoria) in 1962 by Boston University Prof. Osamu Shimomura, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008
• GFP gene


  A valuable reporter gene that can be used to detect the location of expressed proteins in cells
• GFP reporter gene


  Used to detect a protein in human neurons involved in the neurodegenerative condition Huntington's disease
• GFP reporter plasmids


  Used to detect disease causing bacteria in the human digestive tract, such as the Campylobacter jejuni species shown here infecting human intestinal cells
• C. jejuni is a common contaminant of chicken, causing approximately 2.4 million cases of food poisoning in the United States each year
• Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded jointly to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein (GFP)

  2008
• Green fluorescent protein (GFP)


  First isolated from a jellyfish, now routinely used as a brightly glowing marker to track the positions and interactions of proteins in cells
• Key collaborators for the work

  • The glowing California sunset shown in a petri dish on the left was drawn with multiple colors of bacteria expressing fluorescent proteins
• Algal cell culture


  • Used to generate biomass from which cells and metabolites can be isolated
  • Take place in fermenter or bioreactor rather than in the ponds
  • Though algal production cost is high, the products that are isolated can be very profitable such as amino acids ($5-$100 per kilo), food coloring phycobiliproteins ($100 per kilo), and medical phycobiliproteins ($1000 per kilo)
• Fuels from algae


  • Micro-algae produce hydrocarbons (high in energy)
  • In the future, algae may be genetically modified to synthesize gasoline-type fuels such as acyclic hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes)
  • Brown algae and cyanobacteria synthesize small amounts of fuels from fatty acids
• Marine bioprospecting


  1. Phases: Interesting microbial metabolites are investigated and then developed to reach the stage of commercialization of important products

  2. Strategies: Traditional agar plating, high-throughput dilution-to-extinction culture, diffusion chamber
• Medical applications of marine organisms

  • Sharks being used to study the immune system
  • Sea cucumber' abdominal cavity is filled with bacteria; it is used to study resistance to peritonitis
  • Icefish lacks red blood, it is used to study anemia
  • Salmon as source for calcitonin, 20 times higher than the human recombinant calcitonin (for osteoporosis)
  • Corals as source for hydroxyapatite (HA) for bone repair
  • Byssal fibers from Mussels use as adhesives
• Medical potential of marine natural products

  • Anticancer: Didemnin B, a cyclic peptide for leukemia
  • Antiviral compounds: Bryostatins effective against variety of cancers such as ovarian carcinoma and lymphocytic leukemia
  • Antibacterial agents: Squalamine from the stomach of dogfish against bacteria, fungi and protozoa
  • Marine toxins being studied for antitumor, anticancer, antiviral compounds, tumor promoters and anti-inflammatory properties
• Biotechnological applications of microalgae


  Products from microalgae have medical, food and feed, and bioremediation applications
• Probing the marine environment

  1. DNA probes and PCR can be used to identify new organisms without having to capture the organisms

  2. Identifying the country of origin of important fish populations

  3. Tracking larval-stage organisms and microbes in the environment

  4. Identifying currently unknown intermediate life stages of marine organisms

  5. Microplankton (the basis of the marine food chain) can de identified and tagged so that ecological processes such as primary production can be studied

  6. Microbes that cause disease in polluted areas can be identified

  
• Transgenic fish


  Methods used include microinjection, electroporation and injection through the micropyle (the opening in the egg where sperm enter)
• Fish species genetically engineered

  • Atlantic salmon
  • Bluntnose bream
  • Channel catfish
  • Chinook salmon
  • Coho salmon
  • Common carp
  • Gilthead bream
  • Goldfish
  • Killifish
  • Largemouth bass
  • Loach
  • Medaka
  • Mud carp
  • Mummichog
  • Northern pike
  • Penaeid shrimp
  • Rainbow trout
  • Sea bream
  • Striped bass
  • Tilapia
  • Walleye
  • Zebrafish
• Shellfish genetically engineered


  • Abalone
  • Clams
  • Oysters
• Marine in cosmetics industry

  Potential utilization of marine by-products in cosmetics
• Threat to marine organisms: Plastics
• Conservation


  Biotech play an important role in the conservation of threatened and endangered marine fish and mammals
• Legal instruments and organizations regulating the exploitation of marine resources