STUDIES ON THE TISSUE CULTURE OF PANAX GINSENG

Unlike the tissue culture in animals and human being, in higher plants various parts of the plant are cultured for varied purposes, and they are named variously depending on which parts are used as explants or what purposes they are cultured for. Followings are some of the names of culture used frequently: organ culture, tissue culture, callus culture, single cell culture, meristem culture, mericlone culture, ovary culture, ovule culture, embryo culture, endosperm culture, anther culture, pollen culture, protoplast culture, etc.. As the names of the culture indicate, in some kinds of culture the explants used for culture are actually not tissues, but organs, single cells, or protoplasts. It seems, however, convenient to call all of the above-mentioned cultures grossly as tissue culture. Several kinds of tissue culture were attempted using Panax ginseng as material and some of the results were summarized below. 1. Callus culture After dormancy of the sed was broken, whole embryo or parts (hypocotyl, cotyledon and epicotyl) of partly grown embryo were cultured in the media supplemented with growth regulators. Rapid swelling occurred in a few weeks, but most of the swelling was observed only in the basal part of epicotyl, changes in the other parts of embryo appearing in much later stages. The swelling or increase in size, however, was resulted not from the divisions of cells, but from the mere expansion of cell. Real calli were formed about two months after inoculation of explants. Callus tissues developed from cortex, pith, and vascular bundle in the cases of hypo- and epicotyl, from mesophyl tissue in the case of cotyledon. Shoots developed more easily from cotyledons regardless of whether they are detached from or attached to the embryo proper. 2. Culture in the Knudson C medium When cotyledons, detached from or attached to the embryo proper, were cultured in the growth regulator-free Knudson C medium comprision only several kinds of mineral compounds and sucrose, shoot primordium or callus developed profusely and finally plantlets were produced directly from shoot primordium or indirectly through callus. In this medium epidermal cells as well as mesophyl cells of the cotyledon became meristematic and divided, changing into multinucleate cells or multicellular bodies, developing eventually into either shoot primordia or calli. 3. Anther culture Anthers were cultured in the media supplemented with various growth regulators applied singly or in combinations. Callus was formed mostly in the connective tissue of anther. Cells of anther wall layers changed in appearance, but no division occurred. Microspores of all stages in development were not changed, ruling out the possibility that microspore-originated callus might be formed. 4. Isolation of protoplast Protoplasts were isolated from young root, leaf, and epicotyl, using 0.7M D-mannitols as osmoticum and using macerozyme and cellulase respectively for maceration and digestion of the cell wall. Production in large number of naked intact protoplast was rather difficult as compared with other plant species. Fusion of protoplasts occurred infrequently mainly due to the fewer number of naked protoplasts in the solution.