Enhanced Plantlet Regeneration from Cultured Meristems in Sprouting Buds of Saffron Corms

When meristems dissected from dormant corms were used for micropropagation of saffron, low and heterogeneous morphogenic potential as well as high contamination levels have been found (Piqueras and Hernandez, 2004). With the aim to prevent the above mentioned inconvenient, shoot cultures have been initiated from meristems in sprouted saffron corms before flowering. These explants showed a significant lower contamination rate (less than 30 %) when cultured in an culture medium composed of QL salts, MS vitamins and 30 g/l sucrose solidified with 7.5 g/l of agar. To study the morphogenic response induced by different cytokinin types and concentrations (BAP, 2iP and TDZ) the explants were cultivated in medium supplemented with them for sex weeks. After this period, the number of new shoots per initial explant, their length and quality were recorded and used as parameters for the selection of the most effective cytokinin level for multiplication. By using this new explant for the initiation of axillary shoot cultures in saffron a new micropropagation procedure has been developed suitable for the clonal propagation or ex situ germplasm conservation of selected genotypes .

Enhanced Plantlet Regeneration from Cultured Meristems in Sprouting Buds of Saffron Corms Keywords:

Crocus sativus , micropropagation , axillary bud , cytokinins