Breeding kelp for efficient and sustainable utilization of marine resources

Breed4Kelp2Feed aims to lay the foundation for breeding of sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima, a marine brown macroalgae) designed for sustainable production of high yields. In addition to providing food, feed and highly valued chemicals, cultivation of kelp contributes to carbon binding in the oceans. Cultivation of kelp is rapidly expanding worldwide, and Norway, with its extremely long coastline and well-established aquaculture industry, has a huge potential for value creation from kelp cultivation. Currently, only natural populations of kelp is cultivated in Norway, and there is a great potential to exploit genetic variation to produce material with improved characteristics from a cultivation and usage point of view, such as higher growth rate and biomass production, higher protein content, resistance to epiphytes or pathogenic organisms, low content of iodine or other minerals. Genetic improvement has been instrumental for establishing a cost-effective salmon industry in Norway, and breeding of kelp is likely to play a similar role for the future aquaculture industry. Kelps are important habitat-forming species in marine ecosystems, and measures to prevent any harmful effects of kelp cultivation on natural kelp populations must be considered and implemented if required. One such measure may be the development and cultivation of sterile, non-reproductive kelp that cannot hybridize with natural populations. Our goals are to: 1) develop triploid and sterile sporophytes of sugar kelp, 2) identify the most optimal breeding program for sugar kelp, 3) test the feasibility and outcome of a simple breeding program based on local populations, and 4) obtain knowledge on the genetics of sugar kelp. Up to November 2022 we have achieved the flowing results: We have experienced that to measure nuclear DNA content with flow cytometry does not work as well for sugar kelp as it does for higher plants. With another alternative, but laborious method (staining, fluorescence-microscopy and image analysis) we have measured DNA content in different cell and tissue types and found that it varies considerably among different life stages and sexes. There is also a lot of variation within female gametophytes, and apparently also between individuals at the gametophyte stage. In addition, these is variation among different tissue types in the sporophytes. These results are published (Goecke et al., Marine Biotechnology, 2022). Experiments with creating triploid kelp is underway but not yet completed. In 2019 we collected around 150 parents that have been the basis for a selection experiment in three generations. We now have phenotype and genotype data for almost 2000 individuals. We have identified around 20 000 SNPs and 12 000 haplotypes and are currently analyzing the data.

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Breed4Kelp2Feed aims to initiate breeding of sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima, a marine brown macroalgae) designed for sustainable production of high yields. In addition to providing food, feed and highly valued chemicals, cultivation of kelp contributes to carbon binding in the oceans. Cultivation of kelp is rapidly expanding worldwide, and Norway, with its extremely long coastline and well-established aquaculture industry, has a huge potential for value creation from kelp cultivation. Currently, only natural populations of kelp is cultivated in Norway, and there is a great potential to exploit genetic variation to produce material with improved characteristics from a cultivation and usage point of view, such as higher growth rate and biomass production, higher protein content, resistance to epiphytes or pathogenic organisms, low content of iodine or other minerals. Genetic improvement has been instrumental for establishing a cost-effective salmon industry in Norway, and breeding of kelp is likely to play a similar role for the future aquaculture industry. Kelps are important habitat-forming species in marine ecosystems, and measures to prevent any harmful effects of kelp cultivation on natural kelp populations must be considered and implemented if required. One such measure may be the development and cultivation of sterile, non-reproductive kelp that cannot hybridize with natural populations. Our goals are to: 1) develop triploid and sterile sporophytes of S. latissima, 2) identify the most optimal breeding program for kelp, 3) test the feasibility and outcome of a simple breeding program based on local populations, and 4) obtain knowledge on the genetics of S. latissima. Breed4Kelp2Feed is linked to the Centre of Research-based Innovation (SFI) Foods of Norway, based at NMBU.