CAULERPA

{General characters and reproductive structure}

By
Dr. S.N. Suresh
 Caulerpa
Distribution: It includes 60 speices all of these are exclusively marine.
Many sp. are found along the Indian coast. A larger number of
marine species are lithophytes occurring attached to rocks, that after
cover extensive tracts of the sea floor. Some species are found
growing at a depth of 75 to 80 meters. A few grow epiphytically on
the roots of mangrooves. Svedelius and Boergesen (1907) classified
the various species of Caulerpa into the following categories;
Mud Collecting species: Species which grow where there is much
mud and with a rhizome but often grows oblique are almost vertical
enabling them to reach the surface even when covered occasionally by
mud (C.verticillata).
Sand and Mud bottom Species: This group grows rooted in the mud
or sand at the bottom the rhizome usually has a pointed tip with
which it bores its way through the soft substratum (C.cupresoides).
Rock and coral reef species: Species with diverse forms principally
attached to the rocks or corals growing in exposed or sheltered
localities. (C.racemosa).
Structure: The thallus of caulerpa is one celled (within septum) and
reaches a large size up to a meter in length. In size and external form
its simulates a angiospermic plant with a root stock. Some species
attains a size which may be as much as 30 cm in height and meter in
length.The thallus has a definite external form. It is differentiated
into a cylindrical rhizome like creeping portion. From the upper
surface of the rhizome arise a number of erect branches which
resembles foliage shoot and thus are often called assimilatory shoot
(or) leaves. From the lower side of the rhizome arise the numerous
branched thread like rhizoides.

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 The rhizome – like creeping portion and the attaching rhizoids
exhibit no variations in form. In many species the erect branches
have a central, cylindrical axis. The axis bears lateral outgrowths
which are known as the assimilators. C. vaerticilata the assimilators
are cylindrical and arranged in verticillate manner. The assimilators
of C. selago are long, subulate and imbricate. In some species like C.
prolifrea the upright branches are flattened, shortly stalked leaf-like
structures. Genetically the thallus is a diploid structure.
Thallus Structure: Internally, the plant body is characterized by the
complete absence of septation and is composed of closely apposed and
interwined coenocytic (multinucleate) threads traversed by
longitudinal and transverse skeletal strands called trabeculae. The
trabeculae are a strongly developed in the rhizome portion and
completely absent or poorly developed in the rhizoids.
The peripheral cytoplasm encloses numerous nuclei and
disciform chloroplasts devoid of pyrenoids. The wall is made up of
callose, pectin, pectic acids and a polymer of pentose sugar. There is
no cellulose. The wall is thick, living layer of cytoplsam which
surround a large, central vacuole. The chloroplasts are devoid of
pyrenoids.
Reproduction: Vegetative and sexual methods
Vegetative: It reproduces by the method of fragmentation. It
takesplace by the growth and decay of new and older parts, resulting
in the formation of new plants.
Sexual Reproduction:
Majority of the species are dioecious. Iyengar (1940) reported one
monoecious sp. from India. Sexual reproduction is generally
anisogamous. The gamets produced being of two different sizes, the
smaller microgametes and the larger macrogametes. Thallus being
diploid meiosis occurs at the time of gamete formation. So, the gemets
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are haploid. Both the gametes are bifillagellate and pear shaped, with
a single curved chloroplast without a pyrenoid and a prominent
elongate eye-spot. They are developed on the assimilators or rarely on
the rhizome (C.prolifera) in special gametangial areas separated from
the rest of the protoplast by a membrane. The gamets are liberated
shortly after a mass of mucilage through the apices of elongated
paplillae, the extrusion paplillae.
Soon after the liberation of gametes, the fertile parts of the
thallus die and decay. The gamets fuse in pairs in the open sea to
produce zygote which retains all the four filagella for a time. The
zygote soon loses its filagella, becomes spherical and secretes a wall
around it. After the zygote germinates and gives rise to the thallus.

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