Healthy and disease-free commercially sea farm cultivated G.
changii seaweed were collected from Semporna, Sabah and immediately
transferred to Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti
Malaysia Sabah. Upon arrival, the samples were cleaned to remove
epiphytic algae and rinsed with autoclaved seawater. Surface sterilization
was carriedout according toYong et al.(2014a). The samples
were incubated in an antibiotic solution: 100 mg L−1 penicillin G
and 100 mg L−1 streptomycin sulfate in 50% of Provasoli’s enriched
seawater (PES) medium (Provasoli, 1968) for 48 h. The samples
were then washed with 3.0 g L−1 povidone iodine and 15% ethanol
for 30 s,followed by rinsing with autoclaved seawater. The seaweed
was segmented into 10 cm in length and placed in a photobioreactor
developed according to Yong et al. (2014a) with autoclaved
seawater under a photoperiod of 12 h and temperature of 25 ± 1 ◦C