Excessive accumulation of Sargassum brown macroalgae in the Atlantic poses ecological and economic challenges while offering a promising opportunity for sustainable bioproduction. One of Sargassum's main constituents, fucoidan, is a structurally complex and fucose-rich polysaccharide, which cannot be degraded, assimilated, or converted by conventional S. cerevisiae or E. coli. We are developing a dual strategy to address this bottleneck: On the one hand, we are exploring metagenomes and cultivable microorganisms to discover naturally fucose-assimilating nonconventional microbes, enzymes, and pathways; on the other hand, we are engineering stress-tolerant yeast platforms to become able to utilize fucose. These efforts aim to expand the metabolic capabilities of microbial systems to enable the conversion of marine biomass into value-added products. The transformative potential of novel microbial bioconversion platforms opens new directions for next-generation biomanufacturing from ocean-derived feedstocks. By reframing an environmental burden as a renewable carbon source, this approach supports circular bioeconomy goals and contributes to environmental sustainability.
