Studies on the isolation and culture of protoplasts from Kappaphycus alvarezii

In this study, protoplasts were successfully isolated from Kappaphycus alvarezii using snail enzymes, abalone enzymes and cellulase. The optimum enzymic ratio was fixed to be 20% of abalone enzyme, 12% of cellulase and the osmotic stabilizer was 2.0 mol/L glucose. The optimum enzymic hydrolysis conditions were found to be dark enzymolysis at 30°C continuing for 4.0 h. The resultant density and yield of protoplasts achieved 32.60×104 mL−1, 65.20×104 g−1 tissue for Kappaphycus alvarezii. Finally, under the temperature of 20°C, light intensity of 1 500–2 000 lx and photoperiod of 12 h/d, two developmental pathways were investigated: (1) callus-like cell mass and regenerated plantlet occurred on protoplast; (2) young shoots and callus-like cell mass occurred in tissue blocks after enzymolysis.