<i>In Vitro</i> Propagation Potential via Somatic Embryogenesis of the Two Maturing Early Cultivars of European Chestnut (<i>Castanea sativa</i> Mill.)

Abstract

Turkey ranks the third in the production of chestnuts in the world having an important place both in domestic and global markets. However, the chestnut production and the number of trees have been diminishing in recent years. Therefore, in vitro propagation of the chestnut, in addition to the classical propagation techniques, should be applied. Especially the propogation of the early maturing cultivars and production of the quality chestnuts will provide a better income to the producer. Here, somatic embryo production and regeneration from the immature cotyledons of the early maturing cultivars of the European chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill), Hacıibiş and Karamehmet, were studied using the somatic embryogenesis, one of the in vitro propagation techniques. To induce the somatic embryogenesis, 168 different combinations were applied to both cultivars. The somatic embryogenesis rate in Hacıibiş cultivar, in which the interactions were observed among the applications, was found to be 9.9% while it was 11.1% for the Karamehmet cultivar. Dessication, cold treatment, gibberellic acid (GA3) and benzyladenine (BA) + naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) applications were performed on the regeneration of the somatic embryos, and 40% conversion to plant was obtained with desiccation together with BA + NAA supplementation to the medium.