Starting point
A 2026 study published in Environmental Microbiome investigated the bacterial community of Wolffia globosa “Mankai” using metagenomic approaches. Its central finding is that B12 production does not appear to depend on a single bacterial producer. Instead, it emerges from a cooperative network. Some bacteria carry nearly complete pathways for de novo cobalamin biosynthesis, while others contain only parts of the pathway and appear to salvage precursors or remodel different cobamides. This suggests a metabolic division of labour.
For cultivation, this represents a significant shift in perspective. Producing a clean and fast-growing Wolffia strain may not be enough. Maintaining a functional microbial consortium could be just as important.
What the evidence shows
This picture became even more interesting at ICDRA 2026 in Naples, where preliminary results on cobalt supplementation were presented. Cobalt is the central metal ion in the cobalamin molecule. In experiments with Lemna minor, Spirodela polyrhiza and Wolffia globosa, cobalt in the cultivation medium was increased up to 1 µM. In Wolffia globosa, bioavailable B12 increased significantly at the highest tested concentration without a detectable shift in endophytic community composition. This suggests that, in Wolffia, cobalt may primarily change the activity of an existing microbial community rather than replace its members.
The effects were even stronger in other duckweed species: up to a fivefold increase in Lemna minor and up to a threefold increase in Spirodela polyrhiza were reported, accompanied by clearer changes in bacterial community structure.
Practical relevance
For AquaSphere, this is strategically important. It raises the possibility of treating vitamin B12 not merely as a naturally variable characteristic of individual Wolffia batches, but as a controllable quality parameter within a cultivation process. Future concepts could include defined starter microbiomes, controlled cobalt windows, process monitoring and a targeted finishing phase before harvest.
This is also where the real development work begins. The cobalt results presented at ICDRA are conference data and have not yet been peer reviewed. Food safety, cobalt residues, regulatory limits, microbiome stability and reproducibility across many production cycles all require careful validation. For food applications, increasing B12 once is not enough: the process must be safe, controllable and analytically verifiable.
Perspective for AquaSphere
The direction is nevertheless remarkable. Wolffia could develop from a nutrient-dense plant into a controllable plant–microbiome production system in which nutrient composition and microbial function are optimized together.