A METHOD FOR OBTAINING AXENIC ALGAL CULTURES USING THE ANTIBIOTIC CEFOTAXIME WITH EMPHASIS ON CLADOPHOROPSIS MEMBRANACEA (CHLOROPHYTA)1

Axenic cultures of the tropical green seaweed Cladophoropsis membranacea (C. Agardh) Boergesen were obtained by cutting 2-mm apical tips from fast-growing unialgal filaments and incubating them in 1/2PES containing 100-mu-g.mL-1 cefotaxime. After 1 week, apical tips were cut from the newly grown plantlets, washed through a series of sterile drops of seawater, and incubated in sterile 1/2PES. Plantlets were screened for the presence of bacteria by incubating droplets of the culture medium on peptone agar plates and by examining DAPI-stained filaments. Ninety to one hundred percent of the plantlets obtained with this treatment were axenic. Cefotaxime was also effective against cyanobacteria but of only limited value in rhodophytes.