| heal.abstract |
Arbutus andrachne L. (Eastern, Greek or Cyprus strawberry tree) is an evergreen shrub or small tree which grows naturally in thickets, woods and dry rocky places of SE Europe and Asia Minor. It could be used as an ornamental plant in urban and suburban landscapes while its capacity to sprout again after fire suggests its use for reforestation in Mediterranean climates. An efficient micropropagation protocol will facilitate its use. Shoot elongation could not be induced in nodal stem segments from mature native plants on Woody Plant Medium (WPM) salts with 100 mg/L myo-inositol, 1 mg/L thiamine, 0.5 mg/L nicotinic acid and 0.5 mg/L pyridoxine, supplemented with various concentrations of BA and NAA. Elongation occurred when the explants were transferred on WPM with 2.5 mg/L zeatin. WPM was supplemented with various cytokinins (BA, kinetin, 2ip, zeatin) at four concentrations (0.5, 1.0, 2.5 or 5.0 mg/L) in order to test their effect on shoot multiplication in subcultures. In most media 100% of the explants gave shoots except in the one with 0.5 mg/L zeatin (88%) and kinetin (75-88%). Zeatin was the most effective cytokinin in shoot multiplication (3.8-4.8 mean shoot number per explant with 1.3-1.9 cm mean shoot length). 2ip was also effective (1-2.9 mean shoot number per explant, 1.5-2.5 cm mean shoot length), while BA and kinetin were the least effective as they couldn't induce elongation of the shoots produced. Microshoots were rooted in vitro with 90% success on WPM with 1 mg/L IBA and 80% of the microplantlets were established successfully ex vitro. |
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