Induction of Plantlets from Anthers of‘Trovita’Orange

Citrus sinensis Osbeck

Abstract

Anther culture of‘Trovita’orange, a cultivar of sweet orange (Citrus sinensis Osbeck), was attempted.
Anthers with microspores at uninucleate stage were cultured on the Murashige and Skoog′s medium(9) supplemented with or without indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and kinetin at 28°C in darkness. Embryoids appeared directly from within anthers after about 10 weeks of culture. The media containing kinetin and IAA both at 0.002 or 0.02mg/l were effective in embryoid formation. In addition, 0.2 or 2.0mg/l kinetin and 0.2mg/l IAA seemed to be also favorable when combined with 0.002 or 0.02mg/l IAA and 0.002 or 0.02mg/l kinetin, respectively. Calli were formed well on the media with kinetin at 2.0mg/l followed by those with IAA at 2.0mg/l.
After incubation in light with a 16-hour photoperiod, some embryoids differentiated shoots. Induction of roots was stimulated by transfer of embryoids from the embryoid induction media containing growth regulators to a medium without them.
Some root tip cells of differentiated plantlets had a diploid chromosome number of 18.