Plant preservative mixture (PPM) is a new broad-spectrum biocide that may be useful for plant tissue culture. The objective of this study was to determine if PPM interfered with adventitious shoot regeneration on leaf explants from several plant species. Leaf explants from Dendranthema grandiflora `Iridon', Betula pendula, Rhododendron catawbiense var. album and R.c. `America' were made from the top two apical leaves on the microshoots. In the first experiment, 0, 0.5, 1, 2, or 4 mL·L-1 PPM were added to species-appropriate regeneration media. In the second experiment, only mum leaf explants were placed on regeneration media containing 0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, or 0.4 mL·L-1 PPM. The percentage of explants forming shoots and the number of shoots per regenerating explant were recorded after 4, 6, and 10 weeks, for mum, birch, and rhododendron leaves, respectively. The percentages of shoot regeneration from birch and rhododendron leaf explants were unaffected by up to 4 mL·L-1 PPM, and the number of shoots formed per R.c. album explant were also unaffected by the tested concentrations of PPM. In contrast, the numbers of shoots formed on birch and `America' explants were reduced 48% and 25%, respectively, when 4 mL·L-1 PPM was used in the media. The percentages of shoot regeneration and number of shoots per explant were drastically reduced on mum explants when only 0.5 mL·L-1 PPM was used in the medium. In fact, 0.3 mL·L-1 PPM or higher reduced shoot formation by more than 5-fold. This study demonstrates that the effects of PPM on shoot regeneration from leaf explants are species specific.
Adventitious shoot regeneration from leaf explants of the valuable medicinal herb Plectranthus barbatus Andrews