Marine Biotechnology

1-Introduction
• The ocean has the oldest, most diverse, most
numerous and least studied organisms on earth.
• It covers almost (71%) three fourths of our planet
and has the potential to feed the world and supply
cures for many diseases.
• Studying sea plants and animals is a challenge that is
becoming easier due to advanced technologies such as deep-
sea submersibles, sonar, lasers, videos, and satellites.
 What is MARINE Biotechnology?
• Marine Biotechnology (sometimes referred to as “blue biotechnology”)
can be simply defined as the application of biological knowledge of
marine organisms at the whole, or their parts (cells or molecules) and
techniques to develop products and other benefits for humans.

Marine Biotechnology Workflow.

• Marine Biotechnology encompasses those efforts that
involve marine bioresources, either as the source or the
target of biotechnology applications.
• In many cases this means that the living organisms
which are used to develop products or services are
derived from marine sources. At the same time, if
terrestrial organisms are used to develop a biosensor
which is used in the marine environment to assess the
ecosystem health then it also falls within the sphere of
Marine Biotechnology.
• Marine biotechnology exploits the diversity found in marine
environments in terms of the form, structure, physiology and
chemistry of marine organisms, many of which have no equivalent
on land, in ways which enable new materials to be realized.
Activities of marine biotechnology

• The term “marine biotechnology” denotes a

potentially wide variety of activities, which
may be divided into the following categories.
1. Improving the production of marine organisms
2. Manufacture of pharmaceuticals and
nutraceuticals
3. Industrial Chemicals
4. Biofouling
5. Marine Pollution Control
 1. Improving the production of marine
organisms:
• Main applications include the development
and the production of healthcare products for
farmed fish (preventives and therapeutics),
the development of new and/or improved
breeds of farmed fish and biotechnology
based reproduction technologies.
Healthcare products :
• The development of fish vaccines and molecular
diagnostics for diseases are probably the most
promising applications in this field.
• The international market for fish vaccines has been
estimated at €60 million, dominated now by large
healthcare companies.
Breeding:
• Selective breeding is a recent activity in aquaculture (fish and
mollusks) which therefore holds great promise for genetic
enhancement programs.
• The use of molecular markers for enhancing selective
breeding is an even newer activity, which is expected to be
crucial for the development of disease resistant strains,
strains with improved feed efficiency and strains with
improved product quality.
Genetically engineered marine organisms
• Genetic engineering is considered to have
significant potential to enhance aquaculture
through the use of recombinant DNA
techniques that would yield faster-growing
and/or disease-resistant varieties of fish or
mollusks.
 2. Manufacture of pharmaceuticals and
nutraceuticals
• Chemicals produced by or found in marine
organisms have been shown to have a wide
variety of applications as pharmaceuticals for
humans and other animals.
• Uses have included antibacterial, and antiviral
and anti-tumor agents.
• Particular attention has been paid to a variety
of toxins formed by marine organisms.
• Nutraceuticals constitute a variety of substances used in
the food supplement.
• These often have drug-like properties (hence the term –
ceutical) and contain active ingredients such as vitamins,
enzymes, antioxidants and essential oils.
 3. Industrial Chemicals
• Marine organisms are the source of a variety of
chemicals used in industrial processes.
• The best-known examples are Agar-agar and
carrageenan, extracted from seaweed and used as
a thickener in ice cream and other foods and as a
laboratory culture medium.
• A variety of other chemicals used both in food
processing and other manufacturing processes
have also been developed from marine resources.
 4. Biofouling
• Fouling of man-made structures, such as boats and piers, is a constant threat
to a number of man’s uses of the ocean.
• While inorganic chemicals (such as copper) have traditionally been used to
limit biofouling, a number of marine organisms, including bacteria, are being
studied for use in anti-fouling applications.
• Anti-fouling products that can be extracted from marine organisms may
prevent sessile marine organisms such as barnacles from attaching to boats,
piers and other submerged man-made structures.
 5. Marine Pollution Control
• The use of marine organisms to degrade pollutants introduced to the
marine environment is considered feasible in numerous applications.
• Bacterial treatment of human waste is already common, and other
wastes such as halogenated compounds have been shown to be
susceptible to degradation by microorganisms.
• There has also been substantial research in using bacteria to degrade
spilled oil.
 MARINE BIOPROSPECTING
• "Mining the untapped potential of living marine resources"
• The term "marine bioprospecting' is often used to describe the
process of collecting marine biota for natural product
screening"
• Bioprospecting is applied to all animal and plant phyla living in
shallow as well as in deep seabed ecosystems.
 CURRENT STATUS OF MARINE
BIOTECHNOLOGY IN PALESTINE
• In Palestine very little is done in this area, the
main marine biotechnology industry at present
is aquaculture, which concentrates on fish
farming and ornamental fish culture.
• The country up to now has not harnessed the
marine resources. Therefore, it is extremely
important that efforts are made on research
and development in the areas of marine
biotechnology.
OBSTACLES IN DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL OF
MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY
• Remoteness
• Lack of infrastructure
• lack of available workforce – quantity/quality
• Deficiency of information
• Lack of Funding.
MEASURES WHICH MAY BE USEFUL TO
SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE
MARINE BIOTECHNOLOGY SECTOR

• learn from previous work on biotechnology

and adapt to specific requirements
• Support innovation, and technology transfer.