新開発ゲルでサンゴ礁の再生を促進(New Gel Could Boost Coral Reef Restoration)

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2025-05-14 カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校(UCSD)

新開発ゲルでサンゴ礁の再生を促進(New Gel Could Boost Coral Reef Restoration)
Coral larvae settling on substrate coated with SNAP-X. Image from Coral Reef Ecophysiology and Engineering Lab.

カリフォルニア大学サンディエゴ校(UCSD)の研究チームは、サンゴの幼生の定着を最大20倍促進する新しいゲル「SNAP-X」を開発しました。このゲルは、サンゴ幼生が好む化学物質をナノ粒子に封入し、紫外線で硬化させることで、最大1か月間にわたり徐々に放出します。これにより、劣化したサンゴ礁や人工構造物への幼生の定着を促進し、自然再生のボトルネックを解消することが期待されています。実験では、ハワイのサンゴ「Montipora capitata」を用い、水流を伴う環境下での定着率が未処理の表面と比較して最大20倍に向上しました。この研究は、気候変動によるサンゴ礁の衰退に対抗する革新的な手法として注目されています。

<関連情報>

生物模倣的な化学的マイクロハビタットがサンゴの定住を促進する Biomimetic chemical microhabitats enhance coral settlement

Samapti Kundu, Simone Potenti, Zachary A. Quinlan, Helena Willard, Justin Chen, Timothy Noritake, Natalie Levy, Zahra Karimi, Hendrikje Jorissen, Joshua R. Hancock, Crawford Drury, Linda Wegley Kelly, Luisa De Cola, Shaochen Chen, RD consortium, Daniel Wangpraseurt
Trends in Biotechnology  Available online: 14 May 2025
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2025.03.019

Highlights

  • Coral settlement drives reef growth and biodiversity, but remains a major bottleneck in reef restoration.
  • We engineered SNAP-X, a hybrid biomaterial that releases settlement cues via a nanoparticle–biopolymer delivery system.
  • SNAP-X enhances coral settlement over 20-fold, advancing reef restoration with translational potential in chemotaxis and nanomedicine research.

Technology readiness

SNAP-X, a biomimetic material designed to enhance coral settlement by replicating the chemical landscape of coralline algae on healthy reefs, has reached Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 4. It has been successfully tested in both laboratory and mesocosm environments, demonstrating up to a 20-fold increase in coral settlement compared with controls, and sustained bioactive cue release for over 1 month. To progress to higher TRLs, key challenges include optimizing cost-effective large-scale production of exometabolites and demonstrating effectiveness across diverse reef environments globally. Achieving these milestones will pave the way for the integration of SNAP-X into global coral restoration and reef engineering initiatives.

Abstract

Anthropogenic stressors pose substantial threats to the existence of coral reefs. Achieving successful coral recruitment stands as a bottleneck in reef restoration and hybrid reef engineering efforts. Here, we enhance coral settlement through the development of biomimetic microhabitats that replicate the chemical landscape of healthy reefs. We engineered a soft biomaterial, SNAP-X, comprising silica nanoparticles (NPs), biopolymers, and algal exometabolites, to enrich reef microhabitats with bioactive molecules from crustose coralline algae (CCA). Coral settlement was enhanced over 20-fold using SNAP-X-coated substrates compared with uncoated controls. SNAP-X is designed to release chemical signals slowly (>1 month) under natural seawater conditions, and can be rapidly applied to natural reef substrates via photopolymerization, facilitating the light-assisted 3D printing of microengineered habitats. We anticipate that these biomimetic chemical microhabitats will be widely used to augment coral settlement on degraded reefs and to support ecosystem processes on hybrid reefs.

生物工学一般
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