Project description
Exploring opportunistic macroalgae: from nature’s resilience to biotech innovation
In response to increasing global change, the proliferation of opportunistic macroalgae threatens marine ecosystems with frequent blooming events. However, these resilient organisms also hold potential for biotechnological innovation through their diverse secondary metabolites. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme, the HOLO-CWEED project will study macroalgae as holobionts – comprising algae and their microbiomes. It integrates microscopy, biochemistry, metabolomics, and metabarcoding to explore how environmental factors and life stages influence macroalgal metabolomes. By understanding these dynamics, HOLO-CWEED seeks to not only enhance our grasp of macroalgal ecophysiology, but also evaluate the impact of mass strandings on seawater quality. Ultimately, this research promises to transform macroalgae biomass into valuable resources, bridging fundamental insights with practical applications in biotechnology and environmental management.
Objective
Global change is expected to increase the arrival of opportunistic macroalgae, as well as the rate and extent of blooming events, causing severe negative impacts on marine and coastal ecosystems. Opportunistic macroalgae may represent a particularly interesting source of secondary metabolites, as they adapt to highly variable environments and have a withstanding capacity to cope with environmental stressors. Valorization could be a key solution to transform this huge biomass of opportunistic species into a potential for biotechnological and socioeconomic innovation. Before this, it is crucial to have a full understanding on how seasons, life stage and environmental variability modify their metabolome and thus, the quality of their biomass. In this regard, the holobiont perspective (relationship of macroalgae with their microbiome) is paramount to understand comprehensively the macroalgal ecophysiology and the environmental factors modulating their metabolome, all along their life-cycle until their degradation. HOLO-CWEED aims to study opportunistic macroalgae as holobionts to: 1) shed light on the opportunistic macroalgal ecophysiology, 2) assess the intrinsic (microbiome) and extrinsic (environment) factors affecting the quality of their metabolome along their life-cycle, and 3) assess the impact of massive macroalgal strandings on the surrounding seawater. This work will require an inter-disciplinary methodological approach gathering microscopy, biochemistry, metabolomics and metabarcoding, to have a complete understanding of macroalgal holobionts. The host institution facilities and expertise will be essential for stepping from fundamental research to applied research through the valorisation of macroalgae. HOLO-CWEED provides an original scientific approach to understand how opportunistic macroalgae thrive in a changing environment and assess how their massive degradation changes the seawater quality.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistry
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticsmicroscopy
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesecologyecosystems
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiology
- agricultural sciencesagricultural biotechnologybiomass
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Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Main Programme
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European FellowshipsCoordinator
29238 BREST
France