The enzymatic degradation of algal cell walls: a useful approach for improving protein accessibility?

With protein contents higher than 20% (dry weight), some red or green seaweeds are potential sources of commercially useful plant proteins. However, the presence of anionic or neutral polysaccharides in large quantities in the cell wall strongly hinders the solubilization of proteins during the application of classical extraction procedures. A present this limits the study and industrial use of seaweed proteins. This short paper is a discussion about the use of enzymes degrading the cell wall polysaccharides as an alternative method to improve the extraction and the solubilization of algal proteins.