STUDY ON GAMETOPHYTE VEGETATIVE GROWTH OF UNDARIA PINNATIFIDA AND ITS APPLICATIONS

When cultured under certain environmental coriditions (25℃, light intensity 80 μmol/m2 ·s, LD12/12, in enriched seawater medium with 7 × 10-4mol/L NO3,-N, 1.56× 10-4mol/L, PO4-P and supplementsof other elements like Mn, Fe, I, etc.), mate and female gametophytes of U pinnatifida keptgrowing vegetatively and propagated fast at average daily fresh weight increase rate of about 20%. Theempirical formula Gm=Go. 3m was established to estimate the output of vegeative gametophytes. Vigorousvegetative gametophyte cells began to form reproductive structures (oogonium and spermatangium, whenthe tmperature was lower than 25℃ and other environmental factors wrre kept optimal. The sufficientsupply of gametophyte cells provided enough seeds for raising Undaria sporelings on prodiction scale.Controlled cross-breeding experiments using selcted male and female gametophyte clones which increasetheir cell number by mitosis instead of meiosis were also carried out in vitro. Juvenile sporophytes fromthe

When cultured under certain environmental conditions (25 ℃ , light intensity 80 μmol/m2·s, LD 12/12, in enriched seawater medium with 7×10-4 mol/L NO3-N, 1.56×l0-4 mol/L, PO4-P and supplements of other elements like Mn, Fe, I, etc.), male and female gametophytes of U. pinnatifida kept growing vegetatively and propagated fast at average daily fresh weight increase rate of about 20%. The empirical formula Gm = G0 ·3m was established to estimate the output of vegetative gametophytes. Vigorous vegetative gametophyte cells began to form reproductive structures (oogonium and spermatangium, when the temperature was lower than 25℃ and other environmental factors were kept optimal. The sufficient supply of gametophyte cells provided enough seeds for raising Undaria sporelings on production scale. Controlled cross-breeding experiments using selected male and female gametophyte clones which increase their cell number by mitosis instead of meiosis were also carried out in vitro. Juvenile sporophytes from the cross-breeding had almost the same length and width increase rates as those of the control. The fact that vegetative gametophytes can be purposely selected, propagated quickly, cross-bred, with the resulting sporophytes having almost the same characteristics leads to a new way to select desired Undaria strains for long time use without losing the desired economic characteristics.