Sources of Marine-Derived Food Ingredients

Chlorella is a freshwater, unicellular green microalga that is widely used as a food supplement in Japan and around the world. Mass commercial cultivation of Chlorella for use as a health food supplement has taken place for over 35 years, with a more recent application in mariculture feed (Iwamoto, 2004). Many strains of Chlorella can be grown heterotrophically, allowing for production of a high-quality powder without contamination. Chlorella supplements are taken in the form of tablets, capsules, liquid, or as food additives. Claims for health benefits of Chlorella include improved immune function and improved control of hypertension, fibromyalgia, and ulcerative colitis (Halperin et al, 2003). 

In addition to transgenic advances in Chlorella sp. and C. reinhardtii, there has been great effort to develop the biotechnological tools required to research and exploit the commercially important green microalgae H. pluvialis and D. salina. These microalgae are the world s major suppliers of natural astaxanthin and p-carotene, respectively, and successful DNA 

Biomolecules such as enzymes isolated from extremophiles can be highly useful in the food industry due to their unique activities under abnormal conditions, and it has been widely accepted that extremophiles have strong potential to be valuable resources for use in biotechnology (Fujiwara, 2002 Guezennec, 2002 Herbert, 1992). Additionally, the discovery of deep-sea 

Although sponge mariculture was attempted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it has not yet proven to be very lucrative, as little is known about how to replicate the sponge s natural environment and life cycle (Luiten et al, 2003). Additionally, the bioactive compounds of interest are often only produced in trace amounts by sponges. However, recent developments using a primmorph system may facilitate production of bioactive compounds from sponges. Primmorphs are very densely packed. 

The use of genetic modification for production of specific metabolites is an interesting alternative to more traditional methods such as mariculture, cell culture, and chemical synthesis. Transfer of genetic material from a sponge host into bacteria that are easier to grow could allow for increased production of desired metabolites at a much lower cost. However, the majority of the metabolites of interest are not simply proteins, but molecules that are 

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