Nick Paul1
1UniSC Seaweed Research Group, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia
Is Asparagopsis the most famous seaweed in the world? There are no others for which industry and news anchors alike are sidling through the phonetics of a genus name in the boardroom and on our screens. The work over the last decade since the discovery of its anti-methanogenic effect has forged collaborations across land and sea, advancing knowledge and venture capital. But Asparagopsis has always been special. Stepping back in time, so we leap forward in thinking, this talk will be an Asparagopsis highlights package. With humble beginnings, the Asparagopsis gametophyte was once considered a different genus to its Falkenbergia sporophyte. In the 1960s, its remarkable gland cells were front and centre, helping with taxonomy, and subsequently identified as a curious source of antibiotics in the 1970s. This decade saw the description of halogenated natural products in Asparagopsis. It included early interactions with bromoform, plus hundreds more compounds, some we are still uncovering today. In the 1980s came the realisation of its commercial potential in cosmetics, with the first sea-based farming and more laboratory culture work. The 1990s was a recession, of sorts, except for reproductive insights, but the 2000s saw an Asparagopsis renaissance with more chemical ecology, more bromoform and land-based farming, plus exciting insights on genetics and invasiveness. As for today, contemporary science can meet the technical challenges of farming and processing, but with so much to still understand on its ecology in changing environments, will environmental and other factors be the ultimate levellers for scaling Asparagopsis?