Abstract
Seaweeds are of significant interest in the food, pharmaceutical, and agricultural industries as they contain several commercially relevant bioactive compounds. Current extraction methods for macroalgal-derived metabolites are, however, problematic due to the complexity of the algal cell wall which hinders extraction efficiencies. The use of advanced extraction methods, such as enzyme-assisted extraction (EAE), which involve the application of commercial algal cell wall degrading enzymes to hydrolyze the cell wall carbohydrate network, are becoming more popular. Ascophyllum nodosum samples were collected from the Irish coast and incubated in artificial seawater for six weeks at three different temperatures (18 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C) to induce decay. Microbial communities associated with the intact and decaying macroalga were examined using Illumina sequencing and culture-dependent approaches, including the novel ichip device. The bacterial populations associated with the seaweed were observed to change markedly upon decay. Over 800 bacterial isolates cultured from the macroalga were screened for the production of algal cell wall polysaccharidases and a range of species which displayed multiple hydrolytic enzyme activities were identified. Extracts from these enzyme-active bacterial isolates were then used in EAE of phenolics from Fucus vesiculosus and were shown to be more efficient than commercial enzyme preparations in their extraction efficiencies.
Highlights
Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jolis is a brown fucoid which is dominant along the intertidal rocky shores of the North Atlantic [1]
Seaweed extracts are known to help alleviate the consequences of abiotic stress in crops, with extracts from A. nodosum being reported to act at the transcriptional level in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana [11] and to alleviate drought stress in this plant species [12]
While bacteria have previously been isolated from macroalgae using traditional cultivation methods [21,33], this study presents the first use of the ichip to cultivate bacteria from decaying seaweed
Summary
Ascophyllum nodosum (L.) Le Jolis is a brown fucoid which is dominant along the intertidal rocky shores of the North Atlantic [1]. Seaweed extracts are known to help alleviate the consequences of abiotic stress in crops, with extracts from A. nodosum being reported to act at the transcriptional level in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana [11] and to alleviate drought stress in this plant species [12]. Seaweeds and their useful derivatives have become subject to extensive research in recent times
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