A study by Sungkyunkwan University, led by Professor Hwan-Soo Yoon, has found that farmed seaweed has a higher genetic diversity than wild seaweed. The research involved analyzing 41 seaweed genomes, including wild, farmed, and recently introduced seaweed from Europe and New Zealand. The results, published in the international journal 'Nature Ecology and Evolution', challenge the conventional wisdom that farmed seaweed has less genetic diversity than wild seaweed. The high genetic diversity of Korean farmed seaweed, which began in the 1970s, allows it to better adapt to climate change and diseases. The study also found that seaweed introduced in Europe and New Zealand originated in the Korean seaweed group and had lower genetic diversity due to a limited number of individuals introduced. The results of the study are expected to be used in the development of new seaweed varieties and in identifying evolutionary pathways.