title: Cultivated microalgae spills: hard to predict/easier to mitigate risks.
abstract: Cultivating algae on a large scale will inevitably lead to spills into natural ecosystems. Most risk analyses have dealt only with transgenic algae, without considering the risks of cultivating the corresponding non-transgenic wild type species. This is despite the long-studied 'paradox of the plankton', which describes the unsuitability of laboratory experimentation or modeling to predict the outcome of introducing non-native algae into a new ecosystem. Risk analyses of transgenic strains of native algae can be based on whether they are more fit or less fit than their wild type, but these are not possible with non-native species. Risks from spills can be minimized by mutagenically or transgenically deleting genes that are unnecessary in culture but obligatory in nature.
authors.affiliation: Plant Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel 76100. Electronic address: jonathan.gressel@weizmann.ac.il.
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gressel
authors.affiliation: Center for Safety of Substances and Products, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), 3720BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Cécile J B
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: van der Vlugt
authors.affiliation: Center for Safety of Substances and Products, National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), 3720BA Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Hans E N
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Bergmans
mesh_terms: D001709:Biotechnology / Q000379:methods*; D017753:Ecosystem; D004787:Environmental Pollution; D058086:Microalgae / Q000254:growth & development*; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified; D012306:Risk
keywords: algal spill; environmental risk; paradox of the plankton; risk mitigation; transgenic algae