Obtaining plantlets from apical meristem of the red alga Gelidium sp.

For the first time, plantlets were obtained from fragments and cell aggregates (CA) of apical meristem of the red alga Gelidium sp. After two months of cultivation, an initial weight of 100 mg of fragments and CA from fresh meristem produced 3 g of plantlets without rhizoids. During the same period of cultivation, 100 mg of meristem fragments and CA isolated from thalli by the freezing-thawing procedure produced more than 20 g of plantlets with rhizoids. It is assumed that our methods for obtaining plantlets from fragments and CA of fresh and frozen-thawed meristem could be used to generate mass planting material for cultivation of algae (plantlets with rhizoids) in the sea and for tank-bubbling cultivation (plantlets without rhizoids). We speculate that meristem cells of frozen-thawed algae might be natural "seedstock" in the Arctic and Antarctic seas.