Fuente: PubMed "microbial biotechnology" Front Plant Sci. 2026 Jul 16;17:1868553. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2026.1868553. eCollection 2026.ABSTRACTINTRODUCTION: Marine microalgae are emerging as sustainable biostimulant resources; however, species-dependent agronomic outcomes and the associated biochemical changes in cereals remain poorly understood, particularly at the seed metabolome level.METHODS: In this study, we compared two metabolically distinct marine microalgae, Isochrysis galbana (Haptophyta) and Nannochloropsis gaditana (Eustigmatophyta), as enzyme-assisted extracts applied to durum wheat (Triticum durum) to link performance with grain composition and GC-MS seed metabolomics.RESULTS: I. galbana primarily enhanced productivity, increasing grain number (+40%), grain weight (+26%), flour yield (+25%), and elevating Mn (+156%) and Ca (+14%). In contrast, N. gaditana promoted quality-related traits, improving ear density (+10%), flour protein (+5%), and total lipids (+177%), while showing a 3.4-fold increase in polyunsaturated fatty acids, increasing Zn (+13%), and reducing Na (-12%). Yield gains were associated with decreased thousand-kernel weight, consistent with a shift towards higher grain set with smaller kernels, while SDS sedimentation remained unchanged, indicating preserved gluten strength. Multivariate trait integration revealed distinct statistical association patterns: variables related to yield components were predominantly co-associated with I. galbana treatment, whereas compositional and antioxidant-related variables were predominantly co-associated with N. gaditana treatment. Metabolomic profiling supported these functional differences, revealing enhanced amino acid and sugar metabolism under I. galbana and putative lipid/redox-associated pathways under N. gaditana.DISCUSSION: Collectively, these preliminary results suggest that microalgal biostimulation in durum wheat may be strongly species-specific, with seed metabolomic profiles providing integrative biochemical signatures consistent with distinct treatment effects. These observations, derived from a single growing season at one location with one cultivar, warrant multi-season and multi-location validation before species-specific biostimulant strategies can be proposed for cereal production systems.PMID:42534868 | PMC:PMC13422453 | DOI:10.3389/fpls.2026.1868553