Jackrit Anatasaran and Kamnoon Kanchanapoom

pp. 1 - 6

Abstract

The effects of culture medium formula and silver nitrate (AgNO₃) on plant regeneration were investigated in vitro using shoot tips of three zinnia cultivars namely Zinnia angustifolia cv. Starbright, Z. haageana cv. Percient Carpet and Z. elegans cv. Dreamland. Shoot organogenesis of all cultivars cultured on KS (Kohlenbach and Schmidt, 1975) medium
was found superior to FK (Fukuda and Komamine, 1980), MS (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) and ½MS. Callus formation was found best on MS medium containing 0.1 µM TDZ. The addition of 2 mg/l AgNO₃ to KS medium resulted in improvement of the regeneration frequency in Zinnia angustifolia cv. Starbright but not in Z. haageana cv. Percient Carpet and
Z. elegans cv. Dreamland. In contrast, callus formation was reduced in all three zinnias. These results indicate that the response to AgNO₃ was genotype dependent.

Keywords

• organogenesis
• regeneration
• silver nitrate
• tissue culture
• zinnia