Macroalgae has bloomed in the brackish lake of Shenzhen Bay, China continuously from 2010 to 2014. Gracilaria tenuistipitata was identified as the causative macroalgal species. The aim of this study was to explore the outbreak mechanism of G. tenuistipitata, by studying the effects of salinity and nitrogen sources on growth, and the different nitrogen sources uptake characteristic. Our experime...

Gracilaria lemaneiformis (G. lemaneiformis) is rich in polysaccharides that have many functional activities. In this study, the thermostable α-amylase-assisted extraction and antioxidant activity of water-soluble polysaccharides from G. lemaneiformis were investigated. The extraction conditions were optimized as follows: time, 40 min; temperature, 95 °C; pH, 5 and enzyme amount, 6000 U/g, under...

The nucleotide sequences of 5S rRNA from two red algae, Gracilaria compressa and Porphyra tenera have been determined. The two 5S rRNAs are fairly dissimilar to each other in their sequences (65% identity), although they are both composed of 121 nucleotides. Their secondary structures are generally of the eukaryotic with a prokaryotic characteristic. Judged from the 5S rRNA sequence data, the r...

Wild type Gracilaria tikvahiae, a macrophytic red alga, and fourteen genetically characterized pigment mutants were analyzed for their biliprotein and chlorophyll contents. The same three biliproteins, phycoerythrin, phycocyanin, and allophycocyanin, which are found in the wild type are found in all the Mendelian and non-Mendelian mutants examined. Some mutants overproduce R-phycoerythrin while...

In this work, in vitro antioxidant activity of two Brazilian red seaweeds, Gracilaria birdiae and Gracilaria cornea, was characterized. The total phenolic content, the radical-scavenging activity and the antioxidant activity were determined in two solvent extracts of the algae. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) allowed identification of important antioxidant compounds. The etha...

Gracilariaceae are mostly pantropical red algae and include ~230 species in seven genera. Infrafamilial classification of the group has long been based on reproductive characters, but previous phylogenies have shown that traditionally circumscribed groups are not monophyletic. We performed phylogenetic analyses using two plastid (universal plastid amplicon and rbcL) and one mitochondrial (cox1)...

Nutritional fact study has prime importance to make the species edible and commercially viable to the food consumers. The proximate chemical composition and amino acid profile of Gelidium pusillum were studied to understand the nutritional status. The red seaweed Gelidium pusillum was rich in dietary fibre (24.74 ± 1.05%), lipid (2.16 ± 0.61%) and ash content (21.15 ± 0.74%). The mean protein c...

Bay scallop (Argopecten irradians) populations existed in Chesapeake Bay until 1933, when they declined dramatically due to a loss of seagrass habitat. Since then, there have been no documented populations within the Bay. However, some anecdotal observations of live bay scallops within the lower Bay suggest that restoration of the bay scallop is feasible. We therefore tested whether translocate...

Gracilaria lemaneiformis is cultivated on a large scale in China for industrial production of agarose, a natural polysaccharide, which has been shown to have many beneficial bioactivities such as antitumor, antiviral antioxidant activities, etc. In the present study, the hypoglycemic and antioxidant effects of a polysaccharide extracted from Gracilaria lemaneiformis (GLP; Mw, 121.89 kDa) and it...

Vegetative plants of certain seaweeds were collected from the natural habitat of Kilakarai and Mandapam coast were subjected to SEM-energy dispersive spectroscopic analysis and quantified the following minerals viz., Na, Mg, Si, S, Cl, K, Ca, Mn, P, Fe, Zn and Cr during summer, pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons in 2007-2008. The order of preferential accumulation of elemental compos...