Micropropagation and ISSR Molecular Analysis of the Endangered Species Sargassum fusiforme: A Biotechnological Approach

• Published in: Journal of Ocean University of China Vol. 24; no. 3; pp. 783 - 791
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Nedaa, El-Tabakh, Mohamed A. M., Mohamed, Hala F., Xu, Changan, Huang, Lingfeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Science Press 01.06.2025; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algae; Biotechnology; Blades; Culture techniques; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Endangered & extinct species; Endangered plants; Endangered species; Explants; Genetic diversity; Genetic variation; Meteorology; Micropropagation; Morphogenesis; Nucleotide sequence; Oceanography; Plant species; Rare species; Regeneration (biological); Regeneration (physiology); Rhizoids; Sargassum fusiforme; Seaweeds; Seedlings; Somaclonal variation; Tissue culture; Wet weight; ISSR-PCR; tissue culture; somaclonal variation
• ISSN: 1672-5182; 1993-5021; 1672-5174
• DOI: 10.1007/s11802-025-5917-9

Tissue culture is one of the most promising and practical methods for conserving endangered plant species. Therefore, the present study evaluates the conservation of the endangered seaweed Sargassum fusiforme through tissue culturing techniques from different explants for the first time. Besides, the genetic variation of the mother plant and cultivated explants using inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) techniques; this methodology was the first to be illustrated in such work for algae tissue culturing. The regeneration results have shown that different explants could induce shoot and rhizoid morphogenesis with a total number of blades of 2436, 1011, 1466, 678, and 6 from apical parts, stipe with blades, two-segmented seedlings, rhizoids, and stipe without blades, respectively. The total length was 234, 181.8, 83.5, and 81.8 cm from the two-segmented seedlings, apical parts, stipe without blades, and stipe with blades, respectively. At the same time, the total wet weight was 73.148, 48.369, 35.731, 18.588, and 2.035 g from the apical parts, the two-segmented seedlings, stipe with blades, rhizoids, and stipe without blades, respectively. Micropropagation of S. fusiforme was successfully achieved with apical, stipe, and stolon segments using free PES media. It is suggested that the applied genetic fingerprint is valid for S. fusiforme and will respond well to molecular marker assistance in cultivation. The significance of S. fusiforme and its exposure to being endangered due to over-exploitation have made its regeneration in vitro a subject of interest in this study. Thus, this report represents the successful regeneration of S. fusiforme and explores the genetic uniformity or somaclonal variation of the obtained seedlings using the ISSR-PCR marker for the first time.