Biologia plantarum 2013, 57:725-731 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-013-0342-0

Sex expression in monoecious cucumbers micropropagated in vitro

A. Kiełkowska1,*
1 Department of Genetics, Plant Breeding and Seed Science, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Krakow, Poland

The effects of plant growth regulators (PRGs) on the induction of flowering and sex expression in micropropagated cucumbers are presented. The highest number of male flowers (6.0 ± 0.7 per plant) was produced by cv. Kmicic F1 on the Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 4.0 μM kinetin. The highest number of female flowers (3.1 ± 0.3) was also observed in cv. Kmicic F1 on either control (PRG-free) medium or medium supplemented with 6.4 μM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA). The MS medium supplemented with 4.4 μM benzyladenine inhibited flower formation. The highest percentage of flowering plantlets (67.5 ± 7.5) was observed on the control MS medium after 16 weeks of culture. Female-to-male flower ratio was influenced by the culture media and changed during cultivation. The highest pollen viability (60-70 %) was observed in anthers of plants cultured on the control medium and the medium with IAA.

Keywords: auxins; Cucumis sativus; cytokinins; female-to-male flower ratio; in vitro flowering; pollen viability
Subjects: sex expression; in vitro culture; auxins; cytokinins; in vitro flowering; pollen viability; growth; gibberellic acid; cucumber
Species: Cucumis sativus

Received: October 8, 2012; Accepted: March 13, 2013; Published: December 1, 2013Show citation

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Kiełkowska, A. (2013). Sex expression in monoecious cucumbers micropropagated in vitro. Biologia plantarum, 57(4), 725-731. doi: 10.1007/s10535-013-0342-0.
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