Case Study of STS Education in High School—Tissue Culture of Kuretsubo-kabu—

Abstract

We chose a local agricultural product in class demonstrations to stimulate interest among the students. In this study, we tried STS education in our agricultural high school. We selected plant tissue culture as a biotechnology subject and used “Kuretsubo-kabu” (Brassica rapa var. kuretsubo-kabu) as a plant material that was familiar to the students. The subject was to produce axenic seedlings of this plant. The seeds were sown axenically on agar plate containing Hyponex. The growing tips were cut off from the seedlings and transferred to a Murashige-Skoog medium (1962) or Hyponex medium. It was found that the most suitable concentrations of two plant growth hormones, α-naphthaleneacetic acid and kinetin, added to the medium were 0.5 mgl⁻¹ and 2.0 mgl⁻¹, respectively. The grown seedlings were transferred to moist vermiculite in test tubes to accelerate their rooting, and then planted in a field, Analysis of the grown plants showed that the same hot taste constituents were contained at almost the same levels as wild plants. Students studied this subject very enthusiastically and this study may contribute to supply axenic seedlings of this plant to local farms.