Algal cell wall-degrading enzymes from viscera of marine animals.

Regeneration of plantlets fromEnteromorpha (Ulvales, Chlorophyta) protoplasts in axenic culture

“…Following the manual brushing, tissues treated in KII 2 solution and in antibiotics usually yielded axenic and viable plant material. Although several reports have been published on protoplast isolation from a number of species Enteromorpha (Millner etal., 1979;Saga, 1984;Saga et al, 1986;Yamaguchi et al, 1989), regeneration of protoplasts had been reported only for E. linza (Fujita & Migita, 1985) and E. prolifera (Kawashima etal., 1989). Previously reported methods are tedious and invariably quoted lower protoplast yields than in the present study.…”

“…The present method is simple and consistently gave high protoplast yields from all three species by treating the thallus with commercial enzymes in conjunction with crude enzymes prepared from either abalone or top shells. The crude enzymes prepared from digestive systems of herbivorous marine invertebrates have been shown to contain various enzymes capable of degrading algal cell walls (Liu, 1984;Yamaguchi et al, 1989;Boyen et al, 1990). Individual enzyme preparations tested alone did not yield any protoplasts except for softening the tissue to various degrees.…”

“…The application of any such technology to seaweeds depends largely on the ability to produce viable protoplasts capable of regenerating into whole plantlets. Though several reports have been published on isolation of protoplasts from the Enteromorpha (Millner etal., 1979;Saga, 1984;Saga etal., 1986;Yamaguchi et al, 1989), surprisingly protoplast regeneration has been reported for only very few species (Fujita & Migita, 1985;Kawashima et al, 1989). Consequently a systematic investigation was undertaken to study various aspects related to isolation and culture of Enteromorpha protoplasts in axenic culture.…”

Purification and biochemical characterization of a cellulase from the digestive organs of the short-spined sea urchin Strongylocentrotus intermedius

“…Klinger et al [46] showed that there was no difference in digestive enzyme activity between polar and subtropical sea urchins at 15 and 25°C after sea urchins had been reared at 16 or 23°C. Thus far, there are several reports on the detection of cellulase activity in the digestive organs of sea urchin [13,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29], and the activity of digestive enzymes from sea urchins has been analyzed using crude extracts from the digestive organs. However, the physiological function of digestive enzymes in the digestive system of sea urchins remains unclear.…”

“…To develop such artificial diets and aquaculture systems, it is important to understand the digestive physiology of sea urchins. Although numerous edible sea urchins are kelp feeders, a surprisingly limited amount of information exists on the biochemical characterization of cellulases in the digestive system of sea urchins, although several reports have been published on the detection of cellulase activity in the digestive organs of sea urchins [13,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. In the respective studies, cellulase activity was analyzed using crude extracts from the digestive organs and, therefore, the exact biochemical characterization of the cellulase has remained unclear.…”