2000, Volume 2, Issue 8
Strategic Study of CAE >> 2000, Volume 2, Issue 8
Marine Biotechnology and Sustainable Development of Marine Life Resources
Third Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Fujian Xiamen 361005, China
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Abstract
The ocean offers abundant resources to mankind in foods, pharmaceuticals and other bio-active substances, yet the potential in these areas remains largely unexplored. The article deals with the significance of the application of molecular biology to marine living resources for sustainable development and economic growth with particular attention to its current and prospective uses to mariculture, medicine, industry, etc.
Disease is a major obstacle to successful culturing of fish, shrimp and shellfish. As an example of applying the modern methods of gene engineering to marine culture, the work on white spot bacilliform virus (WSBV) -the major pathogen of shrimp disease-is briefly described. A unique method to isolate the WSBV virus was developed and subsequently the intact and highly purified WSBV genomic DNA was obtained. The entire genome sequence was determined with an accuracy of greater than 99.9%. WSBV is a double stranded circular DNA virus of 305 Kb in length： It is the largest animal virus so far sequenced. By bio-informatics, it is found that several ORFs proteins of WSBV are related to those of yeast, drosophila, herpes virus and other high vertebrates： The degree of homology discovered is significant but does not point to a close relationship between WSBV and other organisms. None of them are related to the proteins specified as baculovirus. Further more, The functional genomics of WSBV have to be investigated in order to understand the mechanism of viral infection and to develop strategies for effective treatment and prevention of shrimp disease.
The most exiting prospects of marine biotechnology are in its potential of discovering new pharmaceutics and other bio-active substances from deep sea. This can be accomplished by cloning these genes from deep sea organisms that control the production of active substances so that to produce the active substances on a large scale. These active substances may be very useful for medicine, industry, environmental protection and military.
Keywords
marine biotechnology ; shrimp virus ; deep sea genetic resourse
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