{"id":221434,"date":"2025-09-12T17:35:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221434\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T17:35:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T17:35:12","slug":"cracking-the-code-on-super-kelp-genetics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/221434\/","title":{"rendered":"Cracking the Code on ‘Super Kelp’ Genetics"},"content":{"rendered":"

It provides life-giving oxygen and is used in everyday consumer products like toothpaste.<\/p>\n

Seaweed.<\/p>\n

Also known as kelp, the fast-growing marine algae provides structure for biodiverse ocean life and has increasingly found its way into hundreds<\/a> of food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic items.<\/p>\n

Experts say it could also be a solution to climate change due to its ability to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, slowing ocean warming<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Boats are moored in the harbor at Newport Beach, Calif., on Friday, April 5, 2025. The coastal city is a popular destination for recreational boating, especially as warmer spring weather draws more visitors to the water. CREDIT: KADE MCKENNA, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the kelp in Southern California has historically gone into production of things like albinate used in thickeners, but it does have major industrial importance, and it has for decades and decades,\u201d said Matthew Bracken<\/a>, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Irvine that also has studied kelp<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are starting to see this as a climate solution now because there are major advantages to things like kelp and other seaweeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But kelp and other seaweeds are threatened by ocean warming and pollutants. A marine heatwave in the last decade wiped out more than 90% of kelp forests<\/a> along the Northern California coast.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A strain of \u201csuper kelp\u201d first transplanted<\/a> off Newport Beach in the 1970s could hold the key to preserving California\u2019s vanishing kelp forests in its genes.<\/p>\n

\"\"Karina Arzuyan holds a container of kelp gametophytes in a molecular biology lab inside Ray R. Irani Hall on the University of Southern California campus on Sept. 5, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

University of Southern California students and faculty are working to conserve and study<\/a> this type of giant kelp for its ability to withstand rising<\/a> ocean temperatures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Karina Arzuyan, a PhD candidate working on the Super Kelp Sequencing Project, looks at a kelp gametophtye under a microscope on Sept. 5, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing some species die out. We are seeing other species that are better capable of surviving in these warm waters, such as Sargassum horneri<\/a>, which is an non-native species from Japan that\u2019s taking over parts of Catalina Island, displacing some kelp populations that we have. Some just do better than others because of abiotic conditions, some are okay with warmth, but a degree or two is a massive difference for lots of organisms,\u201d said Karina Arzuyan, a PhD candidate working on the Super Kelp Sequencing project.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A molecular biology lab inside Ray R. Irani Hall on the University of Southern California campus on Sept. 5, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Arzuyan explained that the project studies the kelp\u2019s genome, exploring how and why the proteins in super kelp respond to heat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After an initial project<\/a> in partnership with University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on accelerating the growth of kelp, biologist and USC professor Dr. Sergey Nuzhdin<\/a> established a nonprofit seed bank known as Kelp Ark<\/a> to preserve the collections.<\/p>\n

The seed bank and nursery currently has over 2,600 unique strains of kelp representing 12<\/a> different species within their collection like giant kelp, laminaria, feather boa and bull kelp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Karina Arzuyan, a PhD candidate working on the Super Kelp Sequencing Project, grabs a container of kelp gametophtyes from a lab refrigerators on Sept. 5, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

\"\"Hayden Schneider looks at kelp gametophytes kept in lab refrigerators under red light on Sept. 10, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Although the environmental benefit of kelp farming has been scrutinized<\/a>, the use of kelp extract in everyday products could become more widespread through kelp farming.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you farm kelp, then you will increase uptake of carbon by the ocean very substantially. And if it is the real goal, in addition to that, biofuels, bioplastics and biostimulants<\/a>, most importantly, can be extracted from kelp to feed the economy,\u201d said Dr. Nuzhdin.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dr. Nuzhdin noted that California\u2019s agricultural economy would benefit from the use of kelp-based biostimulants \u2014 compounds that would boost the productivity and drought-resistence<\/a> of crops.<\/p>\n

\"\"Biologist and University of Southern California professor Dr. Sergey Nuzhdin stands in the aquaculture lab on campus on Sept. 5, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

Aside from biostimulants, Bracken said he is \u201cparticularly excited\u201d about innovations in plastic products made of seaweed, which could include nearly any plastic product like tennis shoes.<\/p>\n

\u201cKelp can grow really fast, and so there\u2019s this idea that we could farm them and provide all the same benefits to the ocean, but then you can harvest it and create bio-based products that could be solutions to fight climate change that we haven\u2019t even come up with yet,\u201d said Hayden Schneider, outreach and partnership associate with Kelp Ark. \u201cThey would work with nature versus working against it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Hayden Schneider, outreach and partnership associate with Kelp Ark, looks at kelp gametophytes kept in lab refrigerators under red light on Sept. 10, 2025. Credit: ERIKA TAYLOR, Voice of OC<\/p>\n

This story was co-published by the Voice of OC and Annenberg Media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Erika Taylor is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow and photojournalist. Contact her at\u00a0etaylor@voiceofoc.org<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0@camerakeepsrolling<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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