Abstract

MIRELES-ORDAZ, Julieta et al. Hormonal cell reprogramming of Anthurium andraeanum embryos for massive micropropagation. Nova scientia [online]. 2015, vol.7, n.15, pp.49-67. ISSN 2007-0705.

The Anthurium is a plant genus belonging to the Araceae that comprises up to 800 species, which are native of an extensive tropical and subtropical area including several countries in America. Various species of Anthurium are grown and commercialized as potted plants, for landscaping or to produce flowers due to its great popularity as ornamental plants all over the world, from which the most popular is Anthurium andraeanum. Sexual reproduction of these plants faces several challenges including slow growth rates and the production of heterogeneous materials which represents a disadvantage for its massive production and commercialization. Therefore, in vitro micropropagation has become an option to overcome such disadvantages, so far partially successful micropropagation approaches of Anthurium species have been achieved by using various tissues as initial explants, including leafs, petioles, spadix, spathe, lateral buds, shoot meristems and somatic embryos, the former previously induced from differentiated tissue. However, up to date there is no report using zigotic embryos as a source tissue for massive propagation. In this study, we report calluses formation from immature embryos cultured in MS medium supplemented with a combination of 2 mg/L of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2, 4-D) and 0.5 mg/L of 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). The results show that the embryos are highly efficient as explants to induce callus formation in a fast and easy manner, giving on average 9 plants per callus and having a 90% of survival after acclimatization.

Keywords : Callus induction; cell reprogramming; embryos; Anthurium; phytohormones.