At Pyropia farms, organic acid treatments have enhanced productivity and quality by removing pest algae (such as Ulva spp. and diatoms) and reducing the occurrence of diseases. Ulva spp. attaches to the Pyropia nets competing for inorganic nutrients & space and diminishing productivity. Additionally, the presence of attached contaminants (such as diatoms and middy particles) on the Pyropia nets negatively affects the quality of Pyropia. This study investigated the effects of removing Ulva linza and washing the Pyropia yezoensis nets using an activating treatment agent (organic acid and highly saline solution) with an air bubble device. The results of measuring the dead cell ratios after treatment under different conditions showed that the dead cell ratio of U. linza did not significantly increase when the air bubble device combined the activating treatment agent with the activating treatment agent alone. When washing the P. yezoensis nets, the air bubble device was about 19-37% more effective than the activating treatment agent alone. The findings of this study suggest that the air bubble device enhances the efficacy of the activating treatment agent, resulting in the effective cleaning of the Pyropia nets.

In recent years, macroalgal bloom occurs frequently in coastal oceans worldwide. It might be attributed to accelerating climate change. “Green tide” events caused by proliferation of green macroalgae (Ulva spp.) not only damage the local economy, but also harm coastal environments. These nuisance events have become common across several coastal regions of continents. In Korea, green tide incidences are readily seen throughout the year along the coastlines of Jeju Island, particularly the northeastern coast, since the 2000s. Ulva species are notorious to be difficult for morphology-based species identification due to their high degrees of phenotypic plasticity. In this study, to investigate temporal variation in Ulva community structure on Jeju Island between 2015 and 2020, chloroplast barcode tuf A gene was sequenced and phylogenetically analyzed for 152 specimens from 24 sites. We found that Ulva ohnoi and Ulva pertusa known to be originated from subtropical regions were the most predominant all year round, suggesting that these two species contributed the most to local green tides in this region. While U. pertusa was relatively stable in frequency during 2015 to 2020, U. ohnoi increased 16% in frequency in 2020 (36.84%), which might be associated with rising sea surface temperature from which U. ohnoi could benefit. Two species (Ulva flexuosa, Ulva procera) of origins of Europe should be continuously monitored. The findings of this study provide valuable information and molecular genetic data of genus Ulva occurring in southern coasts of Korea, which will help mitigate negative influences of green tide events on Korea coast.

Ulva compressa Linnaeus (UCL) is a green algae seaweed that performs photosynthesis and is used as a food material in some Asian regions including Korea. It is known to be the dominant species in copper ion-contaminated seas, and many studies on copper ion resistant mechanisms have been reported. UCL is known to have an excellent antioxidant effect, but limited information is available regarding its other physiological activities. In this study, we investigated the anticancer activity of 30% prethanol extracts of Ulva compressa Linnaeus (30% PeUCL) and the underlying mechanisms of its activity on human FaDu hypopharyngeal squamous carcinoma cells. The 30% PeUCL extracts suppressed FaDu cell viability without affecting normal cells (L929), as determined by MTT and viability assays. Furthermore, the 30% PeUCL extracts induced apoptosis, as determined by DAPI staining. The 30% PeUCL extracts inhibited colony formation effectively as well as wound-healing of FaDu cells, even at noncytotoxic concentrations. In addition, 30% PeUCL extracts induced apoptosis significantly through proteolytic cleavage of caspase-3, -7, and -9, and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase, and by downregulation of Bcl-2 and upregulation of Bax in FaDu cells, as determined by Western blot analysis. Collectively, these results suggest that the inhibitory effect of 30% PeUCL extracts on the growth of oral cancer cells, colony formation and wound-healing may be mediated by caspase- and mitochondrial-dependent apoptotic pathways in human FaDu hypopharyngeal squamous carcinoma cells. Therefore, 30% PeUCL extracts can be administered as a natural chemotherapeutic drug for the treatment of human oral cancers.

The production of macroalgae-derived adsorbent is of great importance to realize the idea of treating pollutants with invaluable renewable materials. Herein, a novel meso-micro porous nano-activated carbon was prepared from green alga Ulava lactuca in a facile way via chemical activation with zinc chloride. The resultant activated carbon possesses a significant specific surface area 1486.3 m2/ g. The resulting activated carbon was characterized and investigated for the adsorption of Direct Red 23 (DR23) dye from an aqueous environment. Batch method was conducted to study the effects of different adsorption processes on the DR23 dye adsorption from water. Isotherms and kinetics models were investigated for the adsorption process of DR23 dye. It was found that the adsorption data were well fitted by Langmuir model showing a monolayer adsorption capacity 149.26 mg/g. Kinetic experiments revealed that the adsorptions of DR23 dye can be described with pseudo-secondorder model showing a good correlation (R2 > 0.997). The prepared activated carbon from Ulava lactuca was exposed to a total of six regeneration experiments. The regeneration result proved that the fabricated activated carbon only loses 19% of its adsorption capacity after six cycles. These results clearly demonstrated the high ability of the obtained active carbon to absorb anionic dyes from the aqueous environment.

In this study, we investigated the protective effects of Ulva lactuca methanol extracts against ultraviolet B (UVB)-induced DNA damage in HaCaT cells. First, the contents of general and antioxidative nutrient contents of Ulva lactuca were measured. The moisture, carbohydrate, crude protein, crude fat and ash were 14.01%, 44.80%, 23.19%, 3.10% and 14.90%, respectively. Magnesium that acts as DNA repair enzyme cofactor was the most abundant mineral followed by Ca, P and Fe. The total phenolic and anthocyanoside contents of Ulva lactuca were 2.69 mg/g and 0.13 mg/g, respectively. Cells treated with Ulva lactuca methanol extracts for 24 hours post UVB exposure increased cell viability in a concentration-dependent manner compared to the non-treated control. Also, Ulva lactuca methanol extracts decreased the levels of UVB-induced DNA damage such as cyclobutane pyrimidine dimer and DNA damage response (DDR) proteins such as p-p53 and p21. These results suggest that Ulva lactuca methanol extracts comprising physiological active substances such as Mg, polyphenols and anthocyanosides promote DNA repair by regulating genes related with DDR.

A marine ulvalean species (Chlorophyta) was collected from the eastern coast of Korea. This species is morphologically characterized by a distromatic, dark to medium green and mostly irregularly orbicular or irregularly expanded thallus with entire or undulate margin without serrations. Vegetative cells are irregularly polygonal with distinctly rounded corners in shape, and have chloroplast completely covering the outer cell wall and one to two pyrenoids per cell. In a phylogenetic tree based on ITS (Internal Transcribed Spacer) sequences, this Korean alga nests in the same clade with Ulva sublittoralis, as a sister clade of U. californica, U. flexuosa and U. tanneri, which share the irregularly orbicular or expanded thallus normally without teeth cells. The genetic divergence between them is intraspecific within Ulva. Accordingly, it is identified as U. sublittoralis based on the morphological and molecular data. This is the first record of Ulva sublittoralis in the Korean marine algal flora.

A marine ulvalean species (Chlorophyta) was collected from Imgok, which is located on the eastern coast of Korea. This species is morphologically characterized by distromatic, filiform to strap compressed or tubular thallus. Many branches were found near the base, but lacked proliferations. Cells were longitudinally aligned in the younger part of the branch and were disordered in the older part of the branch. A cap-like parietal chloroplast with one or two pyrenoids was contained in each cell. In a phylogenetic tree based on ITS and rbcL sequences, this species was nested in the same clade as Ulva torta and U. clathratioides from Australia, but formed a sister clade to U. torta from Japan. However, the genetic divergence between them was included in an intraspecific variation range within Ulva. This finding suggests that U. clathratioides should be reduced to a synonym of U. torta. Accordingly, the Korean alga was identified as U. torta based on the morphological and molecular data. This investigation is the first record of U. torta in the Korean marine algal flora.