Variations of RAPD and Chemical Composition of Capsositiphon fulvescens Culturing in Korea

The green marine algae, Capsosiphon fulvescens has been cultivated in south coast of southern Korea for many years on a commercial scale. This species is very popular in Korean as a food supplement because of its attractive flavor and flexcible taste. It is, therefore, necessary to isolate and utilize qualified germplasms for mass production of this economic seaweed. Several reports have been published on phycological applications of RAPDs including the characterization of interspecific genetic variation, the identification of isolates and hybrids, and the study of phylogenetic relationships. However few authors have used RAPDs to assess the genetic variability among populations of a seaweed species(van Oppen et al., 1994; Alberto et al., 1997). The present study was undertaken for characterizing the identities of Capsosiphon fulvescens populations cultivating in Korea through the analysis of PCR based random amplified polymorphic DNAs (Welsh and MacClelland, 1990; Willams et al., 1990) and chemical composition aimed to isolate the useful strains for aquaculture. (omitted)