An in vitro culture system was developed for axenic culture of the seagrass Halophila engelmannii Aschers. The culture system had a rhizome layer solidified with agar (0.8% w/v) and a liquid overlay layer. The rhizome layer contained artificial seawater (20%0, inorganic nutrients, plant growth regulators, sucrose (1% w/v), and activated charcoal (1% w/v). The overlay layer contained artificial seawater and inorganic nutrients. The medium f/4 provided the best source of inorganic nutrients of the five media compared. Axenic cultures of H. engelmannii died if NO3 was the only N source. They grew best when supplied with glutamic acid at a concentration of 3.4 mM as the N source. A combination of α-naphthaleneacetic acid at a concentration of 0.25 mg ∙ L−1 and 6-benzylaminopurine at a concentration of 10 mg ∙ L−1 provided the most rapid rates of propagation as measured by the numbers of pseudowhorls and branches produced. Key words: tissue culture, marine plants, media, plant growth regulators.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.