DulseSeed: Novel process for seed production of a high-value seaweed with anti-diabetic properties

杜尔斯（Palmaria Palmata）是一种英国本土的红海藻，具有优越的营养成分和良好的风味和质地，适合人类食用。此外，由于最近发现其蛋白质成分可能对控制2型糖尿病非常有效，因此Dulse特别令人感兴趣。杜尔斯的市场价格很高，目前只在英国手工采摘。该项目旨在开发一种创造杜尔斯幼苗的新方法，以便该物种可以在海上以商业规模生长成成熟的植物。我们的项目将集中于以下关键的播种步骤：鉴定和收获优质野生繁殖种子原料。2 \。利用一种新的海藻生物量放大方法扩大种子材料储量。3 \。使用定制的光生物反应器触发大量孢子释放和随后的幼苗发芽。4 \。将发芽的幼苗培育成幼苗，以评估种子的活力。超越土地的植物生态CIC （PEBL）在海藻种子收获、种子生产和孵化场设计方面具有专业知识。该项目的结果将是一项全面的可行性评估，其中将提供详细的业务计划、环境影响评估和对在5年期间开展这种业务的财务可行性的分析。如果成功，“豆类种子”项目将为生产高营养食品（平均25%的蛋白质）和一种新型抗糖尿病医疗产品的新方法奠定基础。与现有的高营养食品和抗糖尿病产品相比，Dulse的生产几乎不需要土地使用，也不需要使用化肥或杀虫剂。面对进一步减少生物多样性丧失和碳排放的迫切需要，该项目为解决当今两个最紧迫的挑战提供了机会。由于在Dulse的播种过程和随后的海上生长过程中采用了模块化方法，这一过程具有高度可扩展性，因此也可能为更实惠的营养密集食品和抗糖尿病药物铺平道路，并有机会开发新的出口市场。

Dulse (Palmaria Palmata) is a UK-native red Seaweed with superior nutritional content and a favourable flavour and texture for human food consumption. In addition, Dulse is of particular interest due to the recent discovery that its protein constituents may be highly efficient in controlling type 2 diabetes. Dulse commands a high-market price and is currently only being hand harvested in the UK. This project aims to develop a new method of creating seedlings of Dulse, so that this species can be grown into mature plants at sea at a commercial scale.Our project will focus on the following key seeding steps: 1\. To identify and harvest high-quality wild reproductive seed material stock. 2\. To expand the seed material stock using a novel biomass up-scaling method for seaweeds. 3\. To trigger mass spore release and subsequent germination of seedlings using custom photobioreactor. 4\. To grow germinated seedlings into juvenile plantlets for assessment of the viability of the seed.Plant Ecology Beyond Land CIC (PEBL) has expertise in seaweed seed harvesting, seed production, and hatchery design. The outcome of this project will be a comprehensive feasibility assessment that will provide detailed operational plans, an environmental impact assessment, and an analysis on the financial viability to run such an operation over a 5-year period.If successful, the Dulse-Seed project will provide the foundations of a new means of producing highly nutritional food (average of 25% protein) and a novel anti-diabetic medical product. Compared to existing high-nutrient foods and anti-diabetic products the production of Dulse would require near to no land-use and zero-use of fertilisers or pesticides. In the face of an urgent need to mitigate further biodiversity loss and carbon emissions, this project is an opportunity to tackle two of todays most pressing challenges. Due to the modular approach taken both in the seeding process of Dulse and the subsequent grow-out at sea, this process is highly scalable and therefore may also paves the way for more affordable nutrient dense food and anti-diabetic medication as well as opportunities to develop new export markets.