Dr. Sotiris Orfanidis

Seaweeds (green, red, and brown algae or macroalgae) are oxygenic photosynthetic organisms known for their importance in aquaculture for chemicals, fuels, food, and fiber. Isolation and cultivation of wild seaweed species without epiphytes in sterilized seawater media that contain only one clonal alga, i.e., unialgal cultures, is an essential tool (domestication) for selecting strains with superior features.

The Fisheries Research (ELGO-DIMITRA) Institute’s Biobank or germplasm bank aims to domesticate indigenous Mediterranean macroalgae through unialgal cultivation and phenotype to support mass cultivation. The species of main interest within the NOVAFOODIES project are Chondracanthus teedei (red alga), Gongolaria barbata (brown alga), Ulva lacinulata (green alga) and Cladophora sp. (green alga).

For this purpose, specimens have been selected from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and their phenotype, i.e., responses to abiotic stress or the content of bioactive compounds, pigments, lipids, proteins, etc., will be studied. The strains’ genotypic, intra-specific, and inter-specific heterogeneity through DNA barcoding can also be studied. The characterized and improvement of their economically important traits strains is, in general, the end goal and of excellent value product.