Enhancing in vitro Growth of Bulbs for Mass Propagation of Lily Germplasm

Plants regenerated from in vitro cultures carry chromosomal variations, especially in long-term culture. Reducing the duration of plant tissue culture is one of the ways to reduce genetic and epigenetic changes. In this study, we reduced the duration of long-term culture and repeat subculture using small bulblets derived from bulb scales in two lily cultivars. The adventitious bulblets derived from bulb-scale tissue were cultured on three different media containing Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium supplemented with 1 g/L Charcoal, MS medium containing 0.3 mg/L IAA and 0.4 mg/L BA hormone with or without Charcoal, respectively. About seven weeks later, the number of newly propagated multiple shoots in the two media, A and B media, showed little differentiation. Compared to both media, the number of propagated multiple shoots increased 5-fold in MS medium containing 0.3 mg/L IAA and 0.4 mg/L BA hormone without Charcoal (C medium). The number of propagated multiple shoots ranged from 5 to 6 and 4 to 6 with an average of 5 in TropicalPink and GreenStar cultivars, respectively. The flow cytometric measurements indicated no variation in the ploidy level between control and in vitro propagated plants.