Prospects of biotechnology in seaweed mariculture in India

Red seaweeds are the major source of economically important colloids, agar and carrageenan. Agar industry in India shall become commercially attractive only when the yield of agar from the raw material is enhanced. Inherently most Indian agarophytes contain 10-20% agar only. Though species of Gelidiella and Gelldium contain 35-50% agar and the quality of agar in terms of gel strength is also superior, their biomass production is very less, occurrence is seasonal and their exploitation is difficult. Hence an attempt is underway to obtain a hybrid strain of red seaweed for large scale mariculture between slow growing but high agar containing seaweed and fast growing, poor agar yielders. This article enumerates the prospective areas of seaweed biotechnology and its immediate relevance to seaweed mariculture and the related industry in India.