Seawater-resistant, non-spherical protoplasts from seagrass leaves

Two distinct types occurred among enzymatically isolated protoplasts from leaves of eelgrasses ( Zostera marina L., Z. japonica Ascherson and Phyllospadix iwatensis Makino). Spherical protoplasts with a smooth cell membrane were obtained only from young leaf tissues at the basal portions of blades protected from seawater by tightly enclosing sheaths. Non-spherical protoplasts had a highly invaginated cell membrane and were obtained from mature leaf blades, where the cells also in situ have this type of membrane. The protoplasts from mature leaves were rather rigid in shape and resistant to wide ranges of osmotic potential and salinity without change in their non-spherical shape, while the spherical protoplasts were rapidly destroyed in seawater. Detergents lysed the spherical protoplasts but not the non-spherical ones, suggesting that the highly invaginated enclosing structures of the non-spherical protoplasts contained detergent-resistant materials. Thus, the seagrass leaf cells develop seawater resistance, and this change alters the nature of the enclosing structures during the growth of the leaf blades. The non-membranous enclosing structures and their characteristic materials in the mature leaf cells remain to be defined.