Life history, morphological variability and growth rates of the life phases of Gracilaria tenuistipitata (Rhodophyta: Gracilariales) in vitro

• Main Authors: José Bonomi Barufi, Eurico Cabral de Oliveira, Estela Maria Plastino, Mariana Cabral de Oliveira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas 2010-06-01
• Series: Scientia Marina
• Subjects: gracilaria tenuistipitata; life history; reproduction; tetraspore progeny; rhodophyta; gracilariales
• Online Access: http://scientiamarina.revistas.csic.es/index.php/scientiamarina/article/view/1160

Gracilaria tenuistipitata, a species of commercial interest, is becoming a model organism for studies on red algal physiology and molecular biology as it can be grown easily in vitro under a broad range of conditions. Most of the experiments carried out around the world have been based on a tetrasporophytic clone isolated in our laboratory from a specimen collected in China. Here we describe the life history of this species, give anatomic details of the reproductive structures, illustrate the morphological variability of tetraspore progeny and compare the growth rate of gametophytic and sporophytic thalli. Tetrasporophytic branches showed higher growth rates than gametophytic branches.