POLAR ALGAE STUDIES
Prof. Didem ÖZÇİMEN and her team in Yıldız Technical University Bioengineering Department Algal Biotechnology and Bioprocess Laboratory isolated new algae and bacteria cultures from the water and ice samples brought from Antarctica as part of the 3rd National Antarctic Science Expedition in 2019 under the auspices of the Turkish State Presidency and with the support and financing of the Ministry of Industry and Technology.
The studies on polar algae have started with the delivery of the water and ice samples collected by Prof. Ersan BAŞAR from Horseshoe Island, Skua Lake to Dr. Yılmaz KAYA, faculty member of Ondokuz Mayıs University Agricultural Faculty Agricultural Biotechnology Department, and the studies have been going on for over a year.
The studies on polar algae have been initiated with the prediction that, owing to unique ecogeographical and climatological nature of polar regions, the microalgae in this region perform the biosynthesis of valuable bioactive materials and, especially, effective antioxidants as a metabolic adaptation mechanism to tolerate the oxidative environmental conditions and have different biochemical contents compared to microalgae in other regions.
The microalgae species isolated from the Antarctic region are thought to have anticancer properties against various cancer types and to be useful in pharmaceutical industry. In light of the new information to be based on the algae isolated from the Antarctic region, there is a potential of forming new national and international projects. As a projection, along with the conduct of increasing numbers of scientific studies with biotechnological aspects, it is thought that Turkey will have a say in the future and protection of Antarctica and could become a consultative member state in the Antarctic Treaty System.
- As part of these studies, two bacteria species (Blastomonas sp. and Achromobacter sp.) and two microalgae species (Chlorella variabilis and Auxenochlorella pyrenoidosa) from Antarctica have been isolated and identified. The genetic information of these cultures isolated and identified in 2019 has been published in NCBI Gene Bank, and the first cultures identified have been named “YTU.ANTARCTIC.001”, "YTU.KUTUP.001" and "YTU.POLAR.001" representing the name of the university where the species were isolated. Preliminary studies on the anticarcinogenic effects of the isolated polar microalgae have revealed quite good results. These preliminary findings were also published in the 15th issue of YÖK journal.*
- The results of the study were presented in the SCAR 2020 conference which was held this year online.
- The first undergraduate thesis on polar algae has been completed successfully and there are two ongoing graduate theses.
- The outputs have been sent for publication to SCI/SCI-exp indexed journals and they are currently going through review procedure.
- A project was submitted to TECHNOFEST 2020 Biotechnology Innovation Competition, using the polar algae -isolated with these studies- for creating a tissue layer with wound healing and antimicrobial properties, and the project team became a finalist. With this project, a team participated in TECHNOFEST with a polar study for the first time. So, this study has proved that polar expeditions conducted with national resources could be turned into useful and innovative products.
Studies for identifying species not yet identified still continue, and biotechnological application fields are searched for turning the identified microalgae species into biotechnological products. In the meantime, the samples from the Arctic region expedition were cultured for isolation and identification studies. Also, prospective studies are in progress to evaluate the identified samples in pharmaceutical sector, especially in cancer and neuroprotective effect studies, and to use the new species in other industrial fields depending on their antimicrobial properties.
*Reference: https://www.yok.gov.tr/Dergi/YOK_Dergi_Sayi_15/index.html#page/73