Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, 041-8611, Japan.
Suzuyo Research Institute, Co. Ltd., 11-26 Tsukiji-cho, Shimizu, Shizuoka, 424-0944, Japan.
Mar Biotechnol (NY). 2018 Aug;20(4):520-530. doi: 10.1007/s10126-018-9823-7. Epub 2018 Apr 26.
The red seaweed Pyropia yezoensis has been demonstrated to be a novel resource for the production of high-quality agar. P. yezoensis is grown for the food industry in large-scale Japanese mariculture operations. However, discolored P. yezoensis is mostly discarded as an industrial waste, although it has some kind of utility values. Here, we evaluated the utility of discolored P. yezoensis as a resource for agar production. The quality of agar from the discolored seaweed was comparable to that from normal seaweed. In addition, as a distinguishing characteristic, agar yield was higher from discolored seaweeds than from normal types. Moreover, we successfully used agar from discolored P. yezoensis for bacterial plate media and DNA electrophoresis gels without agarose purification. Thus, our results demonstrate that discolored P. yezoensis is suitable for agar production and use in life science research. Diverting discolored P. yezoensis from disposal to agar production provides a solution to the current industrial waste problem in mariculture, as well as a secure source of agar for research purposes.
红海藻 Pyropia yezoensis 已被证明是生产高质量琼脂的新资源。P. yezoensis 在日本大规模海水养殖中被用于食品工业。然而，变色的 P. yezoensis 大多作为工业废物丢弃，尽管它具有某种实用价值。在这里，我们评估了变色 P. yezoensis 作为琼脂生产资源的用途。变色海藻的琼脂质量与正常海藻相当。此外，作为一个区别特征，变色海藻的琼脂产量高于正常类型。此外，我们成功地使用变色 P. yezoensis 的琼脂制备细菌平板培养基和 DNA 电泳凝胶，而无需琼脂糖纯化。因此，我们的结果表明，变色 P. yezoensis 适合用于琼脂生产和生命科学研究。将变色 P. yezoensis 从废物转移到琼脂生产中，为海水养殖中的当前工业废物问题提供了解决方案，同时为研究目的提供了琼脂的安全来源。
