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Biotech

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Aquaculture biotechnology, the use of any aquatic organism to make a product or run a process, has made substantial contributions to our everyday lives. Products range from medicines and food to oil eating microbes used to clean up the environment. Many of the plants and animals used in aquaculture biotechnology are common and have been used historically for many products we use routinely today. Seaweeds, for instance, are used for food, fertilizer, and medicine. Salad dressings, ice cream, and chocolate milk maintain their texture and inseparability due to the gels and thickeners extracted from algae. Other seaweed products are used in industry, farm animal and aquaculture feeds, medicinal treatments, wastewater treatment, and the recycling of gas products.

Aquaculture biotechnology has also been instrumental in the design of new pharmaceuticals. The chemical properties of a Pacific sponge species have been used to produce over 300 chemicals, many of which are used as antiinflammatory drugs for arthritis and cancer. Dogfish sharks, horseshoe crabs, and nudibanchs (ie.sea slugs) are a few of the many marine species used in medical research to better understand and address neurological disorders such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons disease. The adhesive responsible for barnacle attachment has been studied for mending broken bones.

Our environment has benefited from biotechnology via the development of bioremediation controls such as the bacterium species which can be used to break down spilled. Various plants which grow in wetlands are able to naturally treat and clean wastewater. By examining the sensitive chemical-sensing antennae of a marine crab, biotechnology may someday be able to synthesize the compounds similar to those of the crabs pollutant detecting antennae.

Chiton, the substance which comprises lobster and crab shells, has been developed for use in industrial products. The substance is used to strengthen paper, remove toxic products from wastewater and produce gels, films and fibers.

Aquaculture biotechnology also applies to the breeding of different plants or animals to produce different varieties. In the aquaculture industry this translates into the creation of various strains of fish through hybridization or genetic manipulation. Hybridization has been used on fish such as striped bass, tilapia and catfish. Genetic manipulation has been used to purposely breed sterile (ie. triploid) fish. The results of these hybridization and genetic experiments have been increased growth and reproduction rates, and the lower incidence of disease. This is extremely important to ocean and fresh water fish farmers all over the world, especially those in developing countries.

Terrestrial agriculture has also benefited from aquaculture biotechnology. Characteristics in marine plants and animals can be transferred to their terrestrial counterparts. One of the worlds most salt-tolerant plants, a microalgal species inhabiting the Dead Sea, is able to live in water containing 29% salt. These salt-tolerant genes can be transferred into other crop plants which would enable them to grow in more saline environments. Countering pests is another common problem in agriculture. A natural pesticide called Padan was developed from the toxin of a Japanese bait worm. It is now being used against the larvae of an insect called the rice steam borer.

In Portland, Maine, a seaweed farm started in 1991 has evolved into Phycogen International, an important biotechnology company which conducts research on products which can be derived from porphyra, a brown algae native to Maine.

Another Maine company, Sea Run Holdings of Kennebunk, has pioneered the commercial production and sale of finfish blood serum for use in biotechnology research.

As the search for beneficial uses of marine organisms continues, so too will efforts to culture such organisms in controlled environments. With its thousand of miles of coastline, clear water and diverse marine habitat, Maine, in the years to come, will be both a place of discovery and experimentation in the rapidly growing aquaculture biotechnology sector.