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Title: Adventitious shoot regeneration from leaf explants of southern highbush blueberry cultivars

Author
item LIU, CHENG - Michigan State University
item CALLOW, PETE - Michigan State University
item Rowland, Lisa
item HANCOCK, JAMES - Michigan State University
item SONG, GUO-QING - Michigan State University

Submitted to: Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/27/2010
Publication Date: 5/27/2010
Citation: Liu, C., Callow, P., Rowland, L.J., Hancock, J.F., Song, G. 2010. Adventitious shoot regeneration from leaf explants of southern highbush blueberry cultivars. Plant Cell Tissue And Organ Culture. 103:137-144.

Interpretive Summary: Specialized conditions can be utilized in the laboratory to grow plants from single cells and introduce and test genes that may be useful for plant improvement. In blueberry, these methods have not been available. Here, methods to stimulate growth of southern varieties of blueberry from leaf cells have been optimized to yield the highest number of plants. To accomplish this, plant production from leaf cells of four southern varieties was tested using ten different artificial growth media containing various plant hormones. The optimum conditions were determined and were different for each variety. This information will be used by scientists to introduce genes that are potentially important for improving blueberry.

Technical Abstract: Protocols were developed to optimize adventitious shoot regeneration from four southern highbush blueberry cultivars. Leaf explants from six-week-old shoots of the four cultivars were excised and cultured on ten WPM (woody plant medium)-based regeneration media each containing thidiazuron (TDZ) (4.54 or 9.08 µM), zeatin (18.2 µM), or zeatin riboside (5.7 or 11.4 µM) either separately or in combination with a-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) at 2.69 µM. Optimum medium for shoot regeneration was genotype-dependent. Efficient regeneration was obtained at frequencies of 88.9% for ‘Jewel’, 87.8% for ‘Emerald’, 53.3% for ‘Jubilee’ and 87.8% for ‘Biloxi’. Leaf explants of newly developed shoots from the cultures having undergone five subcultures had higher regeneration frequencies than those having undergone two subcultures. Regenerated shoots, 80-100% for each cultivar, rooted in eight weeks after transplantation to soil. The protocol described has potential use in optimizing regeneration media for other blueberry cultivars.