Missoula Algae Researchers Find Ancient Metabolic Path

January 5, 2012
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com

obb Chaney at the Missoulian reports that University of Montana geoscience professors Carrine Blank and Nancy Hinman, who have been researching algae evolution, have discovered a metabolic path unique to the algae world. According to James Stephens, co-founder of Missoula-based Blue Marble Biomaterials, a young company concentrating on making things like food colorings, flavors and nutritional oils worth between $5,000 and $6,000 a kilogram, “It’s a non-fertilizer nitrogen source that grows a broad variety of organisms. It opens up a chance for a wide diversity of products.”

Professor Blank specializes in evolutionary biology, the study of how and when organisms developed crucial traits that improved their chances of survival. In looking at the genetic structure of some old strains of algae, she noticed they were feeding off a form of nitrogen very different from the typical sources.

The development occurred at a time in Earth’s history when primitive life forms were trying out lots of different ways to make energy: feeding off of sulfur, iron and carbon compounds because oxygen wasn’t yet a major component of the atmosphere. As more plants developed the ability to photosynthesize carbon and give off oxygen, the diversity of life exploded. But some forms held onto their old ways.

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