(79) Direct Bulblet Regeneration from Mature Embryo: A Rapid, Efficient and Genotype-independent In Vitro Morphogenesis Pathway for Preservation of Endangered Wild Populations of Fritillaria imperialis and Fritillaria persica
Wild populations of Fritillaria sp. have dramatically decreased in Iran because of pest overflow and continual grazing. Previous studies have shown that Fritillaria cannot rapidly and efficiently propagate by traditional methods. In vitro tissue culture techniques have shown high potential for micropropagation of endangered plants. The use of bulb-scale pieces for tissue culture can result in the destruction of the endangered parent plant. Fritillaria is a heterozygous plant in which the genetic content of each embryo is different from others, even on the same plant. In this study, mature embryos of F. imperialis and F. persica were used as explant for the first time. Embryos were extracted from seeds and cultured on B5 medium supplemented with various combinations of BAP (0, 0.1, 1 mg/L), NAA (0, 0.4, 4 mg/L), and IAA (0, 0.4, 4 mg/L). Embryo explant showed low genotype dependency between different heterogenous and heterozygote populations of both F. imperialis and F. persica. The best response of bulblet regeneration in both F. imperialis and F. persica was obtained from 1 mg/L BAP + 0.4 mg/L NAA+4 mg/L IAA and direct organogenesis pathway, with 15 bulblets per explant for F. imperialia and 20 for F. persica. Because of the large number of embryos in a plant and their different genetic contents, established in vitro propagation by using embryo explant in this study can provide broad genetic resources and variations. As explained above, in vitro protocols can play a major role in rescuing F. imperialis and F. persica from extinction.