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A contagious disease caused serious damage to Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis cultivation in China

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Abstract

The yield of Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis in China was reduced by at least 40% in 2023 compared with 2022. Based on the investigation of this study, the decrease in production was caused by a disease locally named ‘Baotou’. The first sign of ‘Baotou’ disease was observed with the appearance of many light red branches in the thalli of G. lemaneiformis. During the onset of ‘Baotou’ disease, G. lemaneiformis lost its original red color and eventually decayed. One of the most typical morphological characteristics of ‘Baotou’ is that the closer the thalli were to the attachment rope, the more they decayed. Compared with the flat and regular epidermal cells of healthy alga, diseased algae had a rough surface covered with mucilaginous substance and numerous bacteria were found within the mucilaginous substance. The number of decayed points was significantly increased when the healthy cuttings were placed near the ‘Baotou’ cuttings. Pathogenic bacteria, which can induce the decay of healthy G. lemaneiformis, can be obtained from the ‘Baotou’ diseased G. lemaneiformis. The ‘Baotou’ disease is contagious. Once the G. lemaneiformis are infected with ‘Baotou’ disease, they should be harvested timely to prevent them from infecting the healthy alga.

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Data are available on request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42176139); the Key Program of Science and Technology Innovation in Ningbo (2019B10009); TS Industrial Experts Program (LJNY202102) and International Partnership Program, Bureau of International Cooperation of the CAS (GJHZ2039).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS and Shandong Province Key Laboratory of Experimental Marine Biology, Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanhai Road, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Tong Pang, Jianguo Liu & Hongjun Xu

  2. Laboratory for Marine Biology and Biotechnology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Tong Pang, Jianguo Liu & Hongjun Xu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 266071, China

    Hongjun Xu

  4. College of Life Sciences, Qingdao University, Qingdao, 266071, China

    Feng Wang & Qunqun Guo

  5. Weihai Changqing Marine Technology Co., Ltd, Rongcheng, 264300, China

    **aobin Yang & Liyuan Liu

Authors
  1. Tong Pang
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  2. Feng Wang
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  3. **aobin Yang
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  4. Jianguo Liu
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  5. Hongjun Xu
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  6. Qunqun Guo
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  7. Liyuan Liu
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Contributions

T.P.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing, Supervision, Funding acquisition. F.W.: Performed the experiments, Investigation, Methodology, Statistical analysis. T.P. and F.W. contributed equally to the work. X.Y.: Investigation, Material collection. J.L.: Writing - review, Supervision, Funding acquisition. H.X.: Investigation, discussion of the results. Q.G.: Statistical analysis, Writing - review & editing. L.L.: Material collection.

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Correspondence to Tong Pang.

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Pang, T., Wang, F., Yang, X. et al. A contagious disease caused serious damage to Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis cultivation in China. J Appl Phycol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-024-03246-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-024-03246-6

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