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Heart-Healthy Supplements: As it stands, Omega-3 supplements (they help keep your heart in good shape) are usually made with fish oil, a major source of thefatty acids. It’s also a major source of killing lots of fish. Aurora Algae’s family of Omega-3 oils are made with—you guessed it—algae. That means vegetarians can pop Omega-3 pills without feeling guilty.

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Medication: Algae can also be added to more traditional medications; its anti-inflammatory properties could one day help with conditions like arthritis. But really, the medical possibilities are endless: according to one recent study, protein from algae can even be used to treat SARS infections.

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Protein Drinks: You may not notice the difference when your favorite protein drink contains algae—but the company behind the product certainly will. Algae is infinitely scalable (there’s a reason we call it seaweed) and cheap, meaning it’s one of the easiest places for food and beverage companies to grab the protein they need for their products.

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Fish Food: This doesn’t affect humans directly, but algae is important for the aquaculture industry, which is expected to double in size by 2030. The demand for cheap, renewable protein sources is high—and Aurora Algae is there to help. Plus, the company tells us that algae “has a taste palette that animals prefer.” Seriously.

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Moisturizer: Aurora Algae isn’t working on cosmetics, but an algae biofuel company called Solazyme has already launched head-first into the market with itsAlgenist skincare line. The company’s proprietary algae-based compound is supposedly more effective at triggering skin elastin production, inhibiting melanin production, and protecting against UV-triggered cell damage than other popular skin care products.

We’ll have to wait awhile for most of these algae-infused products to start appearing; Aurora is still in talks with distributors for its algae oils and powders. But if you’re really eager to get in on the wonders of algae, head to Sephora—the Algenist product line is already on sale.

recent discovery in the multicellular green alga, Volvox carteri,has revealed the origin of male and female sexes, showing how they evolved from a more primitive mating system in a unicellular relative.

A team of scientists led by James Umen, Ph.D., associate member, Enterprise Institute for Renewable Fuels at the Danforth Plant Science Center, identified the master regulatory gene for sex determination in Volvox and found that it has acquired new functions compared to a related gene in its close relative, the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii which does not have dimorphic sexes.?Their findings, published on July 8, 2014 in PLOS Biology, also provide a possible blueprint for how sexes in other multicellular organisms like plants and animals may have originated.

For plants and animals having male and female reproductive cells or gametes is the norm, and the differences between the two types of gametes are obvious.?Male gametes are small motile sperm or pollen, while female gametes are large egg cells. However, the evolutionary origins of male and female sexes are unclear because the distant unicellular relatives of plants, animals and other multicellular species generally don’t have distinct sexes, but instead have mating types – a system in which gametes of one mating type can only fuse with those with a different mating type, but the cells of each mating type are indistinguishable from each other in size and morphology.

Unlike the case in plants and animals whose unicellular ancestors are very distantly related, male and female sexes in Volvox evolved relatively recently from mating types in an ancestor that was similar to Chlamydomonas. Based on a previous study published in Science, Umen and co-workers, postdoctoral fellows Sa Geng and Peter DeHoff, had identified a gene in Volvox males called MID whose counterpart in Chlamydomonas was known to control differentiation of its two mating types called “plus” and “minus.”

By forcing chromosomally female Volvox to express MID, the team led by Umen was able to convert what would have been egg cells into packets of functional sperm cells.?Conversely, by using a method of gene inactivation called RNA interference (RNAi), the Danforth scientists were able to block MID expression in chromosomal males causing them to develop with functional eggs in place of their sperm packets.

The team was even able to use their gender-swapped strains to carry out successful matings between pairs of chromosomally male or chromosomally female Volvox.?Importantly, even though the MID genes from the two species of algae are related, the Chlamydomonas MID gene was unable to substitute for Volvox MID.?The finding of a master regulatory gene for sexes and mating types in this group of green algae shows that these two forms of reproduction share a common genetic origin, and hint that a similar evolutionary scenario may underlie the origin of sexes in animals, plants and other multicellular lineages.

In addition to the evolutionary insights gained by Umen’s research team, there are also practical implications for algal biotechnology. “Just as the case for crop plants, breeding will be an important tool for making improved algal strains that can serve as biofuel feed stocks or other purposes.?However, sexual reproduction in most algal species is poorly understood. The identification of a conserved regulatory gene that controls sex and mating in the algae may lead to clues about how sex is controlled in other related groups of algae that are used for biotechnological applications,” Umen said.

為了課題研究，有的時(shí)候我們需要從國(guó)外藻種庫(kù)購(gòu)買一些藻種。境外購(gòu)藻通常有兩種方式，一種是通過熟人回國(guó)的時(shí)候帶回來(lái)；另一種就是網(wǎng)購(gòu)。通常情況下，網(wǎng)購(gòu)是最常用，最有效的。鑒于我自己有2次網(wǎng)購(gòu)的經(jīng)歷，現(xiàn)在我把我的經(jīng)驗(yàn)分享給大家，希望能為大家提供一些參考，如果有不妥的地方還請(qǐng)大家批評(píng)指正，同時(shí)也希望大家能夠把自己的經(jīng)驗(yàn)分享出來(lái)，幫助更多的人。

1.?捷克藻種庫(kù)CCALA

捷克藻種庫(kù),全稱為Culture?Collection?of?Autotrophic?Organisms（CCALA），是捷克科學(xué)院植物研究所下屬的一個(gè)機(jī)構(gòu)，官方網(wǎng)址為：http://ccala.butbn.cas.cz/index.php。藻種價(jià)格上相對(duì)比較便宜一點(diǎn)，如果用于科學(xué)研究會(huì)打半折（注意，捷克是用歐元進(jìn)行結(jié)算的）。下面我以購(gòu)買卵囊藻（Oocystis）為例，介紹一下主要的購(gòu)買流程：

首先，進(jìn)入官方首頁(yè)，點(diǎn)擊Search，如圖：

進(jìn)入搜索頁(yè)面，輸入并搜索你要的藻種，如圖

點(diǎn)擊Search，進(jìn)入搜索結(jié)果界面，這時(shí)你可以看見藻種編號(hào)及藻種，在藻種圖片的上訪有一個(gè)購(gòu)物車（紅色框）的圖標(biāo)，點(diǎn)擊它購(gòu)買藻種，如圖：

這時(shí)，購(gòu)物車由原來(lái)的綠色變成了橙色，同時(shí)左邊的目錄欄出現(xiàn)了橙色的購(gòu)物車標(biāo)志。如圖：

點(diǎn)擊目錄欄的Order，查看你的購(gòu)物車，顯示你要購(gòu)買的藻種的一些信息，如圖：

根據(jù)需要選擇，我個(gè)人建議選擇固體和液體各1個(gè)，填寫完成后，點(diǎn)擊下方的Write?Order進(jìn)入購(gòu)買人信息填寫頁(yè)面，如圖

地址填寫應(yīng)該很簡(jiǎn)單（粉紅色的必填），主要注意下面的選項(xiàng)，在Need?the?pro-forma?invoice?選項(xiàng)中選擇YES，形式發(fā)票還是需要的，這樣方便你匯款轉(zhuǎn)賬，對(duì)于Payment?preference選項(xiàng)，根據(jù)你個(gè)人需要選擇，我選擇的是bank?transfer。重要的一個(gè)選項(xiàng)，Use?of?strains，建議選擇academic/research，因?yàn)榭梢源虬胝踍_^…，最后一個(gè)選項(xiàng)?Addition?notes/Special?requirements你可以填寫你希望收貨的日期、快遞公司及開具證明等信息，也可以什么都不寫。填寫完成后，點(diǎn)擊下面的Send?Order，訂單就會(huì)發(fā)給他們了，這時(shí)系統(tǒng)會(huì)自動(dòng)生成一個(gè)word文檔如圖：

過一段時(shí)間，藻種庫(kù)就會(huì)把電子檔的發(fā)票發(fā)到你的E-mail信箱，如圖：

并附上一段話，就是讓你付款的。如圖：

付款后，你就等著收貨吧！快的話半個(gè)月左右就會(huì)收到！

注意，如果你沒有特別要求，捷克藻種庫(kù)會(huì)用中國(guó)郵政。你可以在他們發(fā)貨后，向他們索取快遞號(hào)，方便自己再網(wǎng)上查詢到藻種運(yùn)輸情況。

2.?英國(guó)藻種庫(kù)CCAP

CCAP官方網(wǎng)址：http://www.ccap.ac.uk/，下面同樣以卵囊藻（Oocystis）為例，簡(jiǎn)單介紹一下購(gòu)買流程：

首先，進(jìn)入主頁(yè)，在主頁(yè)中間部分點(diǎn)擊Order?Cultures>go，進(jìn)入購(gòu)買界面，如圖：

在購(gòu)買界面，懸著Search?the?strain?data進(jìn)入搜索藻種界面，如圖：

輸入藻種名稱，并點(diǎn)擊Search，彈出結(jié)果，如圖：

點(diǎn)擊購(gòu)物車標(biāo)志（紅色框），將藻種加入購(gòu)物車，如圖：

然后再該頁(yè)的上面，點(diǎn)擊購(gòu)物車標(biāo)志（紅色框），如圖：

進(jìn)入order?form界面，填寫客戶信息，如圖：

與捷克藻種庫(kù)要求差不多，這里就不贅述了，填寫完成后點(diǎn)擊頁(yè)面下方的Send，將訂購(gòu)信息發(fā)給CCAP，注意CCAP是用英鎊結(jié)算的。

這里面注意，CCAP會(huì)要求你給他幾周時(shí)間，如圖：

是因?yàn)?，他們需要時(shí)間進(jìn)行接藻。所以你大約會(huì)1個(gè)月后收到藻種。

Send一段時(shí)間以后，CCAP就會(huì)給你發(fā)過來(lái)一封E-mail，主要內(nèi)容是訂單的信息同時(shí)希望你盡快匯款，如圖：

匯款方式，前面已經(jīng)介紹過了，這里提一下與捷克藻種庫(kù)不同的是，CCAP發(fā)的是聯(lián)邦快遞，聯(lián)邦快遞比較貴，同時(shí)需要注意的是關(guān)稅問題，關(guān)稅如何收取的，超過多少錢收關(guān)稅，這個(gè)我沒有去找資料，我的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷是，從捷克藻種庫(kù)購(gòu)買的藻種沒有交付關(guān)稅，而從CCAP購(gòu)買的藻種除了付了購(gòu)藻的錢，我拿到貨物之后又付了300多人民幣的關(guān)稅，原因很可能是我在CCAP購(gòu)買的藻種較多，價(jià)錢超過了一定額度，但是我沒有去考證。。

以上就是一些經(jīng)驗(yàn)和主要的購(gòu)買流程，應(yīng)該比較詳細(xì)了（可能也有點(diǎn)啰嗦^_^..），因?yàn)橐呀?jīng)過去幾個(gè)月的時(shí)間了，可能有些細(xì)節(jié)還是沒能說明白，希望大家諒解。

Their discovery could change the entire oil, gas and jet fuel industry forever.

Since then Ocean Nutrition Canada has teams up with Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) in an effort to use the super algae to create green jet fuel. Algae is already used for making?biofuelaround the world, but this super algae’s ability to mass produce oil at 60 times the speed of normal algae has scientists buzzing about the possibilities.

They discovered the microorganism when screening through hundreds of different algaes, trying to find one which could mass produce Omega-3 fatty acids. The accidental discovery of one which can create oil instead sparked the company to grow it and stockpile the algae in cryogenic reserve.

“We were looking and we got lucky,” says Ian Lucas, executive VP of innovation and strategy at Ocean Nutrition. “The SDTC program is focused on our ability to take this and turn it into jet fuel. We’re going to demonstrate the ability to grow the algae on a large scale.”

Since then the company has also partnered up with Canada’s National Research Council, military contractor Lockheed Martin, and Honeywell’s UOP LLC.

What it means is that in the future airplanes could be running on algae-made jet fuel… and why stop there, why not make cars and trucks which also run on green jet fuel! Gasoline demand in Canada represents 43% of the oil market (46% in the USA).

Normally it takes a lot of energy to make biofuel. Harvesting plants, converting them into ethanol… its essentially burning fields of crops just to fuel cars. Its not environmentally friendly at all. Most of the ethanol we get today in North America comes from corn. It takes a lot of energy to make it, and the idea of growing plants for fuel remains highly controversial because it makes havoc with food prices.

But algae is different. It takes CO2 out of the air and water and converts it straight into something useful. Its carbon neutral, which unlike field grown ethanol doesn’t require tractors, diesel and an expensive process to convert the plants into ethanol.

Between hydrogen-electric cars and green algae oils we are going to see a dramatic shift in how we fuel cars in the next 20 years. Especially since conventional oil prices keep rising, something which is ruinous to the economy.

Airplanes don’t have the option of using electricity. Jet fuel is their only option, but making it using algae opens the potential for a green airline industry which actually recycles the CO2 its putting into the atmosphere using algae.

In the United States the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has set the goal of producing tens of millions of gallons of algae-based oil each year at a production plant scheduled for 2013.

Boeing Co. recently announced plans to switch to 1% biofuels by 2015 and to increase their percentage in the years to follow. “We need to get to 1 per cent to get that foundation and then the trajectory will be significantly steeper,” says Billy Glover, head of Boeing’s environmental strategy unit.

The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy are both testing green jet fuels. The navy has committed itself to have at least 50% of its fleet operate on green fuel by 2020.

Here in Canada Bombardier Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney Canada and Honeywell’s UOP LLC have all committed themselves to an 80% reduction in conventional oil usage, planning to use green oil instead. Porter Airlines in Toronto plans to start using green jet fuel in 2012.

So the demand for green fuel is out there and growing. This super algae will play a significant role in mass producing green oil in the future.

Nature雜志最新公布的就是 Bigelowellia natans 和Guillardia theta 的基因組，前者具有9500萬(wàn)個(gè)核苷酸，而后者基因組的體積則為87Mb，并且這兩種基因組中大約有一半是其獨(dú)一無(wú)二的，也就是說沒有在其它物種中發(fā)現(xiàn)過。研究人員將這些基因組稱為“活化石”，因?yàn)樗鼈冞€殘留有nucleomorph。

文章的作者，加拿大達(dá)爾豪西大學(xué)的John Archibald教授表示，“這兩種藻類的基因組測(cè)序，是首個(gè)完成的cryptophyte和chlorarachniophyte的基因組測(cè)序，將有助于我們了解真核生物的進(jìn)化樹，以及光合作用的進(jìn)化過程。 ”所有這些真核微生物的基因組數(shù)據(jù)都將免費(fèi)公開，每位被選中的研究人員在組裝和注釋這些轉(zhuǎn)錄組數(shù)據(jù)后，有6個(gè)月對(duì)于數(shù)據(jù)的獨(dú)占期，之后將會(huì)被存放在公共數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)，包括GenBank和Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Mircobial Ecology Research and Analysis。

目前大部分的轉(zhuǎn)錄組數(shù)據(jù)局限于細(xì)菌，動(dòng)物和陸地植物，而這一計(jì)劃將能補(bǔ)充大量數(shù)據(jù)，為單細(xì)胞遺傳研究鋪平道路，便于研究人員分析海洋藻類中不同的基因，及調(diào)控模式，反過來(lái)也有助于生物學(xué)家們了解這些生物如何在不同環(huán)境中存活，以及對(duì)于我們環(huán)境的影響。

Algae.Tec執(zhí)行主席Roger Stroud表示，公司對(duì)這次籌資極為高興。

“這再次顯示資深投資者一致看好替代交通燃料技術(shù)的需求，諸如Algae.Tec將海藻轉(zhuǎn)為生物燃料的封閉式解決方案這樣的技術(shù)。對(duì)于最近公司取得的階段性成果以及公司與中國(guó)、斯里蘭卡和歐洲大公司簽署商業(yè)交易的公告，市場(chǎng)也正在回應(yīng)。同時(shí)，Algae.Tec也給尋求降低二氧化碳技術(shù)的碳排放公司和行業(yè)提供了可盈利的解決方案。”

Algae.Tec是一家高科技公司，利用名為“McConchie-Stroud”系統(tǒng)的封閉式高產(chǎn)量海藻養(yǎng)殖和收獲系統(tǒng)，將海藻轉(zhuǎn)化為生物燃料。

Algae.Tec成立于2007年，是一家利用海藻生產(chǎn)可再生燃料的上市公司，在美國(guó)佐治亞州首府亞特蘭大以及澳大利亞西澳大利亞州首府珀斯均設(shè)有辦公室。該公司擁有一個(gè)名為“McConchie-Stroud系統(tǒng)”的封閉式、高產(chǎn)量的海藻養(yǎng)殖與收獲系統(tǒng)。

Algae.Tec采用封閉式的模塊工程技術(shù)，使海藻養(yǎng)殖達(dá)到了工業(yè)化規(guī)模，所生產(chǎn)的生物燃料可替代主要依賴進(jìn)口的化石燃料。

經(jīng)證實(shí)，這一技術(shù)在生產(chǎn)力、產(chǎn)量、二氧化碳固存以及對(duì)產(chǎn)區(qū)規(guī)模的要求等方面，較農(nóng)作物和業(yè)界其他的海藻系統(tǒng)都具有更為優(yōu)秀的表現(xiàn)。