• ALGAE
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.49-54
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• 2018

Red algal mitochondrial genomes (mtDNAs) can provide useful information on species identification. mtDNAs of Pyropia / Porphyra (Bangiales, Rhodophyta) have shown diverse variation in their size and gene structure. In particular, the introns and intronic open reading frames found in the ribosomal RNA large subunit gene (rnl) and cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 gene (cox1) significantly vary the mitochondrial genome size in Pyropia / Porphyra species. In this study, we examined the exon / intron structure of rnl and cox1 genes of Pyropia yezoensis at the intraspecific level. The combined data of rnl and cox1 genes exhibited 12 genotypes for 40 P. yezoensis strains, based on the existence of introns. These genotypes were more effective to identify P. yezoensis strains in comparison to the traditional DNA barcode cox1 marker (5 haplotypes). Therefore, the variation in gene structure of rnl and cox1 can be a novel molecular marker to discriminate the strains of Pyropia species.

• ALGAE
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.249-265
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• 2014

As with land crops, cultivated algae are affected by various diseases ranging from large outbreaks of a disease to chronic epiphytes, which may downgrade the value of the final product. The recent development of intensive and dense mariculture practices has enabled some new diseases to spread much faster than before. A new disease is reported almost every year, and the impact of diseases is expected to increase with environmental change, such as global warming. We observed the incidence of diseases in two Pyropia sea farms in Korea from 2011 to 2014, and estimated the economic loss caused by each disease. Serious damage is caused by the oomycete pathogens, Pythium porphyrae and Olpidiopsis spp., which decreased the productivity of the Pyropia sea farms. In Seocheon sea farms, an outbreak of Olpidiopsis spp. disease resulted in approximately US $1.6 million in loss, representing approximately 24.5% of total sales during the 2012-2013 season. The damage caused by green-spot disease was almost as serious as oomycete diseases. An outbreak of green-spot disease in the Seocheon sea farms resulted in approximately US $1.1 million in loss, representing 10.7% of total sales in the 2013-2014 season in this area. However, the causative agent of green-spot disease is still not confirmed. "Diatom felt" is regarded as a minor nuisance that does not cause serious damage in Pyropia; however, our case study showed that the economic loss caused by "diatom felt" might be as serious as that of oomycete diseases. Bacteria and cyanobacteria are indigenous members of epiphytic microbial community on Pyropia blades, but can become opportunistic pathogens under suitable environmental conditions, especially when Pyropia suffers from other diseases. A regular acid wash of the Pyropia cultivation nets is the most common treatment for all of the above mentioned diseases, and represents approximately 30% of the total cost in Pyropia sea farming. However, the acid wash is ineffective for some diseases, especially for Olpidiopsis and bacterial diseases.

• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.247-263
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• 2015

We sequenced the rbcL gene in more than 100 collections of foliose Bangiales made in the Aleutian Islands and western Alaska Peninsula during the past 25 years. This work allows us to recognize four previously undescribed species, two in the genus Boreophyllum and two in Pyropia. Boreophyllum aleuticum appears to be endemic to the Aleutian Islands, whereas B. ambiguum is known to occur from the Yakutat area to the tip of the Alaska Peninsula. The two previously undescribed species of Pyropia are more broadly distributed. Pyropia taeniata, which was previously identified under the name Py. pseudolinearis, occurs from northern Southeast Alaska through the Aleutian Islands. Pyropia unabbottiae, which is sister to Py. abbottiae, occurs from southern Vancouver Island to Attu Island. Collections throughout the Aleutian Islands allow us to document the distribution of another dozen species of foliose Bangiales in this region, including Boreophyllum aestivale, Fuscifolium tasa, Pyropia fallax, Py. fucicola, Py. gardneri, Py. kurogii, Py. nereocystis, Py. pseudolanceolata, Py. torta, Wildemania amplissima, W. norrisii, and W. variegata. We were unable to confirm the occurrence of the following species previously recorded from the Aleutian Islands: Porphya ochotensis, Pyropia abbottiae, Py. perforata, Py. pseudolinearis, P. purpurea, P. umbilicalis, Py. yezoensis and Wildemania schizophylla. At least two undescribed filamentous Bangiales also occur in the Aleutian Islands.

• ALGAE
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.29-39
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• 2017

Geographic distributions of pathogens are affected by dynamic processes involving host susceptibility, availability and abundance. An oomycete, Pythium porphyrae, is the causative agent of red rot disease, which plagues Pyropia farms in Korea and Japan almost every year and causes serious economic damage. We isolated an oomycete pathogen infecting Pyropia plicata from a natural population in Wellington, New Zealand. The pathogen was identified as Pythium porphyrae using cytochrome oxidase subunit 1 and internal transcribed spacer of the rDNA cistron molecular markers. Susceptibility test showed that this Pythium from New Zealand was able to infect several different species and genera of Bangiales including Pyropia but is not able to infect their sporophytic (conchocelis) phases. The sequences of the isolated New Zealand strain were also identical to Pythium chondricola from Korea and the type strain from the Netherlands. Genetic species delimitation analyses found no support for separating P. porphyrae from P. chondricola, nor do we find morphological characters to distinguish them. We propose that Pythium chondricola be placed in synonymy with P. porphyrae. It appears that the pathogen of Pyropia, both in aquaculture in the northern hemisphere and in natural populations in the southern hemisphere is one species.

• ALGAE
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.55-68
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• 2018

Foliose species of the Bangiaceae (Porphyra s. l.) are very important in Korean fisheries, and their taxonomy and ecophysiology have received much attention because of the potential for developing or improving aquaculture techniques. Although 20 species of foliose Bangiales have been listed from the Korean coast, some of them remain uncertain and need further comparative morphological studies with molecular comparison. In this study, we confirm the distribution of four Pyropia species from the east coast of Korea, Pyropia kinositae, P. moriensis, P. onoi, and P. retorta sp. nov., based on morphology and rbcL sequence data. Although P. onoi was listed in North Korea in old floral works, its occurrence on the east coast of South Korea is first revealed in this study based on molecular data. P. kinositae and P. moriensis, which were originally described from Hokkaido, Japan, are first reported on the east coast of Korea in this study. Pyropia retorta sp. nov. and P. yezonesis share a similar thallus color and narrow spermatangial patches in the upper portion of the frond, and they have a sympatric distribution. However, P. retorta can be distinguished by the curled or twisted thalli and by molecular data. The biogeographic pattern of the two native species, P. kinositae and P. retorta, suggests that the east coast of Korea may have been a place of refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and then recolonized to the northern part of Japan through the restored East Korean Warm Current after the LGM.

• ALGAE
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.217-222
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• 2015

Pythium species (Pythiales, Oomycetes) are well known as the algal pathogen that causes red rot disease in Pyropia / Porphyra species (Bangiales, Rhodophyta). Accurate species identification of the pathogen is important to finding a scientific solution for the disease and to clarify the host-parasite relationship. In Korea, only Pythium porphyrae has been reported from Pyropia species, with identifications based on culture and genetic analysis of the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region. Recent fungal DNA barcoding studies have shown the low taxonomic resolution of the ITS region and suggested the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1 (cox1) gene as an alternative molecular marker to identify Pythium species. In this study, we applied an analysis of both the ITS and cox1 regions to clarify the taxonomic relationships of Korean Pythium species. From the results, the two closely related Pythium species (P. chondricola and P. porphyrae) showed the same ITS sequence, while the cox1 marker successfully discriminated P. chondricola from P. porphyrae. This is the first report of the presence of P. chondricola from the infected blade of Pyropia yezoensis in Asia. This finding of the algal pathogen provides important information for identifying and determining the distribution of Pythium species. Further studies are also needed to confirm whether P. chondricola and P. porphyrae are coexisting as algal pathogens of Pyropia species in Korea.

• ALGAE
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2017

Seaweed aquaculture technologies have developed dramatically over the past 70 years mostly in Asia and more recently in Americas and Europe. However, there are still many challenges to overcome with respect to the science and to social acceptability. The challenges include the development of strains with thermo-tolerance, disease resistance, fast growth, high concentration of desired molecules, the reduction of fouling organisms and the development of more robust and cost efficient farm systems that can withstand storm events in offshore environments. It is also important to note that seaweed aquaculture provides ecosystem services, which improve conditions of the coastal waters for the benefit of other living organisms and the environment. The ecosystem services role of seaweed aquaculture and its economic value will also be quantitatively estimated in this review.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.682-687
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• 2018

We investigated the effects of a highly saline solution (HS) containing hypochlorous acid, calcium chloride ($CaCl_2$), and phosphoric acid ($H_3PO_4$) on cell death and growth rate of laver Porphyra yezoensis and green laver Ulva intestinalis. Cell death rates of laver treated with HS and HS plus hypochlorous acid (HS + HOCl) in the harvesting stage were less than 0.5%, and there were no significant differences between the HS and HS + HOCl treatments. However, cell death of green laver treated with HS + HOCl in the harvesting stage was greater than 81.2%. These results indicate that the addition of HOCl is highly effective to eradicate noxious green laver without causing damage to laver. The addition of HOCl and $H_3PO_4$ to HS did not increase the area or weight of laver blades. A combination treatment of $CaCl_2$ and HS, however, significantly increased the area and weight of laver lades compared to controls (P<0.05).

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.297-305
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• 2014

In order to understand the contribution of seaweed aquaculture to nutrients and carbon cycles in coastal environments, we measured the nutrients & carbon uptake rates of Porphyra yezoensis Ueda sampled at Nakdong-River Estuary using a chamber incubation method from November 2011 to April 2012. It was observed that the production rate of dissolved oxygen by P. yezoensis (n=30~40) was about $68.8{\pm}46.0{\mu}mol\;{g_{FW}}^{-1}h^{-1}$ and uptake rate of nitrate, phosphate and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) was found to be $2.5{\pm}1.8{\mu}mol\;{g_{FW}}^{-1}h^{-1}$, $0.18{\pm}0.11{\mu}mol\;{g_{FW}}^{-1}h^{-1}$ and $87.1{\pm}57.3{\mu}mol\;{g_{FW}}^{-1}h^{-1}$, respectively. There was a positive linear correlation existed between the production rate of dissolved oxygen and the consumption rates of nitrate, phosphate and DIC, respectively, suggesting that these factors may serve as good indicators of P. yezoensis photosynthesis. Further, there was a negative logarithmic relationship between fresh weight of thallus and uptake rates of nutrients and $CO_2$, which suggested that younger specimens (0.1~0.3 g) were much more efficient at nutrients and $CO_2$ uptake than old specimens. It means that the early culturing stage than harvesting season might have more possibilities to be developed chlorosis by high rates of nitrogen uptake. However, N & C demanding rates of Busan and Jeollabuk-do, calculated by monthly mass production and culturing area, were much higher than those of Jeollanam-do, the highest harvesting area in Korea. Chlorosis events at Jeollabuk-do recently might have developed by the reason that heavily culture in narrow area and insufficient nutrients in maximum yield season (Dec.~Jan.) due mostly to shortage of land discharge and weak water circulation. The annual DIC uptake by P. yezoensis in Nakdong-River Estuary was estimated about $5.6{\times}10^3\;CO_2$ ton, which was about 0.03% of annual carbon dioxide emission of Busan City. Taken together, we suggest more research would be helpful to gain deep insight to evaluate the roles of seaweed aquaculture to the coastal nutrients cycles and global carbon cycle.