This award supports cooperative research between Michael Neushul, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, and X.G. Fei, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao on the genetics of Chinese and American kelp. The objective of the research is to define genetic aspects of the reproductive life history of kelps using new genetic techniques. The Chinese have been paricularly successful in breeding better kelp strains for aquaculture and in producing parthenosporophytes. American and other researchers have had good success with obtaining hybrids between these various taxa of kelp. This research effort combines these backgrounds with newly developed techniques for studying genomes to understand kelp genetics. This project is jointly sponsored by NSF and the Chinese Academy of Sciences under the US-PRC Protocol on Cooperation in Basic Sciences.
