SINOPSIS

The analysis of development of the concept of vegetative cell division in phycology testifies to necessity of preservation of this fundamental concept of general biology concerned with the problem of origin of multicellular plant organisms. Different interpretations of the term "vegetative cell division" can be reduced to two basic interpretations: a broad one, involving all ways of division of vegetative cells with cell walls, which result in rise and growth of multicellular thallus; and a narrow one, related to the mode of cell division of those representatives of green algae which phylogenetically are closest to higher plants. The broad interpretation of this term is preferable, because it represents a variety of the evolutionary tendencies of transition to multicellularity in the plant kingdom, which has created a broad spectrum of versions for natural selection at origin of higher plants. The author formulates the term "vegetative cell division" relying on two basic classic criteria: behavior of cell wall of a parent cell during cytokinesis and function of daughter cells. Other features (e.g. ultrastructural) can be used as additional characteristics of vegetative cell division only in case of their congruence with the basic ones. The analysis of diverse modes of vegetative cell division of algae testifies to the iterative rise of this phenomenon, as well as multicellularity, in the plant kingdom.