Micropropagación clonal, una alternativa biotecnológica en el cultivo de macroalgas marinas chilenas de importancia económica / Clonal micropropagation, a biotechnological alternative in the culture of chilean marine macroalgae of economical importance

Vegetative propagation of higler plants have been practiced since antiquity. He modern approach relies upon the totipotency of somatic cells to give rise to a fully differentiated plant. In this context, this paper presntes the potential of plant biotechonology on economically interesting marine algae from Chile and outlines the ongoing research on seaweeds micropropagatin. Micropropagation techniques are seen as the means of speeding up the production of desirable strains (e.g., higher growth rate, enhanced phycocolloid production, epiphyte resistance, etc.) that would be available as seed stocks for the development of chilean mariculture. We report our advances in tissue culture techniques on Gracilaria chilensis Bird, MacLachlan & Oliveira; Gelidium lingulatum Kützing; Gelidium rex Santelices & Abbbott and Lessonia nigrescens Bory. Our efforts are focused on the development of procedures for calli or totipotent cells induction and their pathways to plantlets,stages of micropropagation, its limitations, advantages and future research involving protoplasts isolation