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Somatic embryogenesis in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.): improving culture initiation with abscisic acid and silver nitrate

  • Cell Biology and Morphogenesis
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Abstract

Loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) culture initiation was improved by the addition of abscisic acid (ABA) (3.7 µM), silver nitrate (20  µM), and guanosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate, 8-bromo-, sodium salt (10 µM) to the medium and by raising cytokinin levels in the presence of 50 mg/l activated carbon (AC). Basal medium contained modified 1/2-P6 salts, 50 mg/l AC, Cu and Zn added to compensate for adsorption by AC, 1.5% maltose, 2% myo-inositol, 500 mg/l casamino acids, 450 mg/l glutamine, 2 mg/l α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), 0.55 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BA), 0.53 mg/l kinetin, and 2 g/l Gelrite. Across 32 open-pollinated families initiation ranged from 0 to 53.4%, with an average of 17.9%. Further optimization of cytokinins to 0.63 mg/l BA and 0.61 mg/l kinetin along with the removal of ABA maintained initiation at 18.2% across 19 families. Survival of 2001 new initiations was tracked for 4–6 months. Survival averaged 28.8%. A test of 68 new initiations tracked closely for 4 months demonstrated that at least 80% of the cultures lost did not grow after transfer to the multiplication media, suggesting that many new initiations abort during the initiation process.

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Abbreviations

ABA :

Abscisic acid

AC :

Activated carbon

BA :

6-Benzylaminopurine

8-Br-cGMP :

Guanosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate, 8-bromo-, sodium salt

NAA :

α-Naphthaleneacetic acid

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Acknowledgements

We thank the member companies of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology for financial support and Boise Cascade, Westvaco, Union Camp, and Georgia Pacific for cone collections. We also thank Dr. Gary Peter for discussions concerning potential auxin or cytokinin signaling compounds. We are grateful for the help of J. Ezzell, X. Feng, A. Holmgren, S. Johnson, H. Schindler, M. Snyder, and S. Sayre.

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  1. Institute of Paper Science and Technology, 500 10th Street, Atlanta, GA, 30318, USA

    G. S. Pullman, K. Namjoshi & Y. Zhang

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  1. G. S. Pullman
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  2. K. Namjoshi
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  3. Y. Zhang
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Correspondence to G. S. Pullman.

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Communicated by G.C. Phillips

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Pullman, G.S., Namjoshi, K. & Zhang, Y. Somatic embryogenesis in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.): improving culture initiation with abscisic acid and silver nitrate. Plant Cell Rep 22, 85–95 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-003-0673-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-003-0673-y

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