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Algae might be C3 plants[link], which means they might
be
less efficient at photosynthesizing than C4 plants which
keep oxygen from diminishing the metabolic process.
Engineering algae to be C4 plants should make them
grow
faster and with greater bulk, sequestering carbon.
Another improvement
to growth is removing the histones
from algae. Or rather in algae, "histone-like chloroplast
proteins". Histones are like DNA spools, the more spools,
the more gradual the rate of DNA replication. They found
during the mid 20th century that removing them from
yeast causes the yeast to grow 3 to 5 times as rapidly.
One possible caveat is that other things eat the algae,
then
other thing eat the things that eat the algae...
Algae might be C3 plants
https://biology.sta...ed-by-phytoplankton
[beanangel, Nov 20 2018]
Photosynthesis including map
https://en.wikipedi...wiki/Photosynthesis
[bs0u0155, Nov 20 2018]
C3&C4 in algae
https://www.ncbi.nl...rticles/PMC3353924/
[bs0u0155, Nov 20 2018]
[link]
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[beany], do you know how many quadrillions of algal cells
there are in the oceans? And do you know how long they have
been there? And have you ever encountered "evolution"? If
C4 metabolism and/or lack of histones gave algae a
competitive advantage, then that's would algae would already
have. |
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It is very, very difficult to engineer any organism such that it
can out-compete its neighbours in a wild environment. |
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Algae aren't plants. They're algae. Algae were here long
before us, or plants. They'll be here at the end. When the
last cockroach dies, green slime will be doing business as
usual. Algae most certainly do not need help. As Max
states, we're not qualified and they beat us to it <link>. |
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The main flaw here though is that you assume
photosynthetic flux, efficiency, and DNA replication are
the limiting factors. Have a look at the oceans in the
false-color global image <link>. There is a stripe of
modest photosynthetic activity across the equator, but
just off and for most of the oceans it's pretty dead, even
with all the sun. It's higher off the northern coast of
RUSSIA than say, Hawaii. Photosynthesis isn't limiting.
There's a big hint in the Amazon delta. Minerals. Close to
land where coastal erosion and rivers provide minerals,
lots of algae. Even better, glaciers which crush up and
flush out rock. Nitrates, phosphates, iron, calcium
magnesium. Stuff like that. Also, most often I think, CO2,
or bicarbonate, when dissolved. |
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Before Algae got going, we used to have a roughly equal
nitrogen-CO2 mix, they changed it 50% to 0.04%. Then
they had to go and die and get stuck underground, taking
the carbon and leaving behind a thinner toxic oxygen
environment. Trees pulled the same trick leaving coal,
animals with limestone. The last couple of billion years
shows life is pretty good at taking the atmosphere and
making it into rock. The last hope was nitrogen, but there
are bacteria that have solved that problem. |
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[the above space is left intentionally blank, for [8th] to insert
a comedic reference to C4] |
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//a comedic reference to C4// |
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This constitutes the obligatory "Algal Boom!" Joke. |
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Just get out, and take that idiot Elwood with you. |
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//[beany], do you know how many quadrillions of
algal
cells there are in the oceans?// |
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Perhaps he's met them all? |
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A quick calculation suggests that [beany] (and, indeed me) are
both related to algae - we're cousins about 7 trillion times
removed. |
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An ancillary fact is that we all contain DNA which has won the
lottery of life about 18 trillion times in a row, since biology
began. |
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How many millennia far back did Ted Cruz's
ancestors splinter off from the rest of us? |
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