Cryopreservation of vegetative thalli of species.

UNLABELLED

Sea lettuce () is a genus of green macroalgae present along all the coasts of the world's oceans. It represents about 100 species with diverse habitats. Inter- and intra-species natural variation is very large, both in terms of growth characteristics and biomass biochemical composition. As a result, biomass has a wide range of applications and strain selection can achieve significant increases in yield(s). Establishing solid, long term and cost-effective methodologies for the conservation of genetic diversity is then required to safeguard and reuse selected strains. Here, we report a cryopreservation-based protocol for the long-term preservation of foliose strains. Strains from seven different species were cryopreserved for 15 and/or 120 days in liquid nitrogen, and of the 3 replicates cryopreserved, at least one survived, allowing us to successfully recover all strains. On average, among all specimen cryo-preserved, 82% of them survived and grew post cryo-preservation.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10811-024-03300-3.