biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 58:153-158, 2014 | DOI: 10.1007/s10535-013-0372-7

Production of triploid plants from endosperm cultures of Phlox drummondii

A. Razdan Tiku¹, M. K. Razdan^2,*, S. N. Raina¹

¹ Department of Botany, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

² Shyam Lal College, University of Delhi, Shahdara, Delhi, India

Triploid plants of ornamental Phlox drummondii Hook. were raised from cultures of endosperm excised from immature fruits having zygotic embryo at early dicotyledonous stage. Endosperm tissue was firstly cultured with the embryo on the Murashige and Skoog's (MS) medium supplemented with 5 μM 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) + 10 μM α-napthaleneacetic acid (NAA) for 7 d and recultured after the embryo was removed. A friable callus appeared two weeks after removal of the embryo and it became compact callus mass in another three weeks. Upon transfer of this 5-week-old callus to the MS medium with 10 μM BAP + 2.5 μM indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), maximum percentage of green nodular shoot buds appeared from which regenerated dwarf shoots. Elongation of the dwarf shoots, however, required transfer of the individual dwarf shoots excised from the callus on the fresh medium and best results achieved on medium with low concentration of IAA (0.5 μM) in presence of 10 μM BAP. The shoots were then rooted in vitro and plants subsequently established in pots containing soil. Over 70 % of plants were triploid with a chromosome number of 2n=3x=21. Size of stem, leaves, flowers, pollen, and stomata of these triploid plants were higher and the plants were more vigorous as compared to naturally occurring diploid plants. In particular, flowers showed bright colour with enlarged central eye adding to their ornamental value.

Keywords: auxins; callus; cytokinins; ex vitro transfer; in vitro culture; ploidy

Subjects: in vitro culture; endosperm; auxins; cytokinins; ex vitro transfer; ploidy

Species: Phlox drummondii

Received: October 18, 2010; Revised: May 30, 2013; Accepted: July 4, 2013; Published: March 1, 2014Show citation