Kappaphycus alvarezii Transcriptome or Gene expression. Kappaphycus alvarezii

The red alga Kappahycus alvarezii is economically important as an edible species and as a source of κ-carrageenan for industries. Using tissue culture technique, it is possible to produce superior seedling and carrageenan quality and quantity from K. alvarezii compared to the wild type. The superior characteristics may be contributed by three main factors such as genotype of the mother plant, tissue culture/ in vitro manipulation and epigenetic. Thus, transcriptome analysis was carried out on the wild type and tissue culture-derived seaweed to compare and reveal the underlying mechanism that leads towards the understanding of carrageenan biosynthesis in K. alvarezii

红藻卡帕藻（Kappahycus alvarezii）作为食用物种与工业κ-卡拉胶（κ-carrageenan）的原料来源，具有重要的经济价值。相较于野生型株系，借助组织培养技术可从卡帕藻中获得更优质的种苗，同时提升卡拉胶的产量与品质。该优良性状主要由三大核心因素促成，分别为母株基因型、组织培养/体外（in vitro）操作以及表观遗传（epigenetic）因素。为此，研究人员对野生型卡帕藻及经组织培养获得的海藻样本开展了转录组分析，通过对比两组样本的差异以揭示潜在的分子机制，进而助力解析卡帕藻（K. alvarezii）中κ-卡拉胶的生物合成过程。