Plant Tissue Cult. 4(1) : 39-44, 1994

Plant Regeneration from Immature and Mature Embryo Axes of Watermelon

A. Ahad, R. Islam, M. Hossain, M. Khalekuzzaman and O.I. Joarder

Department of Botany, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi-6205, Bangladesh

Key words: Organogenesis, Regeneration, Embryo axis, Citrullus lanatus

Abastract

Immature and mature embryo axes were excised from seeds of watermelon and cultured on Linsmaier and Skoog (LS) medium supplemented with various combinations of benzyladenine (BA), a-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and casein hydrolysate (CH). On this medium, the explants invariably underwent callusing followed by multiple shoot formation. BA (0.5-1 mg/1) in combination with 0.1 mg/1 IAA was found suitable for adventitious shoot organogenesis. However, the addition of 100 mg/1 CH improved shoot regeneration efficiency. The regeneration capacity of immature embryo axis was much higher than that of mature embryo axes. Proliferating cultures produced further shoots upon subculture to fresh medium and these shoots rooted spontaneously on LS medium with 1 mg/1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA).

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