Preparation and regeneration of spheroplasts from <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Arthrospira</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">platensis</Emphasis> (Spirulina)

Ultrasonic pretreatment, lysozyme, inorganic osmotics and bovine albumin were used to prepare the spheroplasts of Arthrospira platensis (Spirulina platensis). The average cell number of the fragments from the filaments of strain A9 was about 2.2 cells after 80-s ultrasonic pretreatment. These fragments could regenerate and were suitable material for isolating spheroplasts, so the optimum conditions for doing this were investigated. The best enzymolysis parameters were designed. During the isolation process, gentle shaking of the enzymolysis sample for several times greatly enhanced the proportion of spheroplasts. However, no spheroplasts were obtained when organic compounds were used as osmotics. The spheroplasts could form typical colonies on plate of inorganic medium, with a regeneration rate of about 3%. These spheroplasts might be used as competence cells to carry on the research of genetic transformation.