Improvement of somatic embryogenesis and plantlet conversion in Oplopanax elatus, an endangered medicinal woody plant

Abstract

Oplopanax elatus is a medicinal plant on the verge of extinction because of overexploitation. In the present study, the effects of various factors on enhancing somatic embryogenesis and plantlet conversion were studied. Mature seeds were collected from a total of 13 plants from 4 mountains in South Korea, and the genetic distances were calculated to analyze the effect of genotype on somatic embryogenesis. Results of cluster analysis and the unweighted-pair-group method with arithmetic mean of 13 genotypes indicated the presence of 3 main groups. Both genotype and explant type affected the induction of somatic embryos (SEs). Sorak 2 and root were found to be the most suitable genotype and explant type, respectively, for SE induction in O. elatus. Among the different types of carbon sources tested, 5% sucrose induced the maximum number of SEs. The formation and development of SEs were significantly influenced by culture density; thus, 10 mg embryonic callus was found to be the most suitable for SE induction. The highest rates of germination and SE conversion were obtained in a germination medium containing 1.8 gelrite and 3.2 g·l-1 agar. In addition, 80% of the plantlets that were transplanted into artificial soil acclimatized successfully. Thus, our results showed that the percentage survival of O. elatus during in vitro proliferation could be increased by optimizing to the somatic embryogenesis system.

Genotype-dependent mass somatic embryogenesis: a chance to recover extinct populations of Pulsatilla vulgaris Mill.

“…Rare and endangered with extinction species are effectively propagated via SE and could be protected as artificial seeds or cryopreserved (e.g., Rybczyński and Mikuła 2006;Moon et al 2013;Kang et al 2014;Streczynski et al 2019). Among Pulsatilla species, only one species, specifically Pulsatilla koreana has been propagated via SE so far (Lin et al 2011).…”

“…Development of synthetic seeds through encapsulation system (enclosing totipotent plant parts e.g., somatic embryos) provides a proficient method for continuous distribution and short/medium-term conservation of the germplasms (Gantait et al 2015). In twenty-first century the germplasm of increasing number of endangered species is propagated via SE and protected as synthetic seeds or cryopreserved (e.g., Moon et al 2013;Kang et al 2014).…”

In vitro callus induction and development of Vernonia condensata Baker with embryogenic potential

“…Studies of somatic embryogenesis carried out in several plant species have demonstrated this low or non-existent rate of conversion of embryos to seedlings, such as, Oplopanax elatus (Nakai) Nakai (Moon et al, 2013), Manihot esculenta Crantz (Vidal et al, 2014), Medicago sativa L. (Amini;Deljou;Nabiabad, 2016), Crataegus spp. (Taimori et al, 2016) and Coffea arabica and C. canephora (Etienne et al, 2018).…”

Addition of ionophore A23187 increases the efficiency of Cocos nucifera somatic embryogenesis

“…There are several studies reporting in vitro somatic embryogenesis protocols for different plant species and also reporting that their performance can be influenced by different factors, including genotype (Moon et al 2013;Jiao et al 2018), type and maturity of explant tissue source (Moon et al 2013), choice of growth regulators (Filippov et al 2006;Verma et al 2018), carbon source (Gaj 2004;Moon et al 2013), nitrogen source (Hita et al 2003;Leljak-Levanic et al 2004), polyamines (Jiao et al 2018), basal medium strength (Prakash and Gurumurthi 2010), gelling agent, density of the culture (Moon et al 2013), subculture frequency (George et al 2008) and culture room lighting (Vidican and Cachita-Cosma 2010).…”