FAIR-CT96-5007 Induction of morphogenesis (somatic embryos and/or adventitious shoots) from thin cell layers of cork oak (Quercus suber) and chestnut (Castanea sativa)

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Objectives:

The main objective of this work was to establish reliable micropropagation and rooting protocols for chestnut and cork oak. These protocols would be useful for breeding programmes and, in particular, for genetic transformation experiments.

Activities and Results:

Shoot formation was obtained from internodal explants (longitudinal sections and longitudinal segments) of chestnut. The presence of a higher cut surface area for bacterial infection in these explants may improve the results obtained in genetic transformation of chestnut. From sections isolated at the proximity of the nodal region, shoot regeneration and these shoots were induced to root in vitro. These results are important, since the number of shoots regenerated can be increased, enabling plants produced in vitro to be transferred to soil for further experimentation, essential for breeding and reforestation programs of chestnut. As for the cork oak, structures resembling floral buds in shoots regenerated from in vitro material or from in-field growing material were obtained.

Conclusions:

Flower induction of cork oak under in vitro conditions may be valuable in breeding programmes. However, histological studies still had to be carried out to identify the morphological and anatomical structure of these buds. Nevertheless these preliminary results are interesting as the precocious development of axillary floral buds from juvenile material of cork oak were obtained. Further experimentation is necessary before these results can be confirmed. In addition somatic embryo formation was induced from in vitro cork oak shoots maintained in culture for four years. This experiment has to be repeated to obtain shoot regeneration from the embryo. These results once achieved may be useful for genetic transformation experiments.

Keywords: Micropropagation, corkoak, chestnut

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Scientific Supervisor

• Laboratory for Plant Biotechnology-ICAT PORTUGAL