In Vitro Propagation of Salicornia bigelovii by Shoot-tip Cultures

Abstract

Additional index words. halophyte, tissue culture, new crop, seed oil crop Salicornia bigelovii Torr., an annual, suc-culent species of Chenopodiaceae, has the potential to become one of the first seawater-irrigated crop plants (Glenn et al., 1991). This plant was identified as having the great-est promise among many halophyte species tested for possible domestication as a new oilseed crop (O'Leary, 1988; O'Leary et al., 1985). The objective of this study was to develop a tissue culture medium for clonal propagation of selected plants. Salicornia seeds were germinated in a greenhouse in 1.8-liter plastic pots contain-ing a mixture of 1 peat : 1 vermiculite : 1 perlite (by volume) and were irrigated with fresh water. Plants were fertilized weekly with a nutrient solution containing 200 ppm N, 88 ppm P, and 166 ppm K. Shoot tips (8 to 10 mm long) of 2-month-old plants were ex-cised and surface-sterilized for 10 min in 0.26% sodium hypochlorite containing 5 mg Tween 20 (surfactant)/liter, followed by four rinses in sterile distilled water. The basal ends of the tips were recut and cultured on a me-dium containing MS salts (Murashige and Skoog, 1962), B-5 vitamins (Gamborg et al., 1968), and (in mg·liter -1) 100 inositol, 2 glycine, 30,000 sucrose, and 10,000 Difco Bacto-agar. The combinations of 0.54 µM and 10.74 µM 1-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 0.44 µM and 8.89 µM N-(phen-ylmethyl)-1 H-purine-6-amine (BA) were used to study their influence on shoot multipli-cation and root development. Cultures were grown on 20 ml medium contained in 25 × 250-mm glass tubes. Each treatment had 20 replications and the exper-iment was repeated. All cultures were grown at 21 ± 2C under a 30 to 46 µmol·m -2 ·s -1 light intensity produced by cool-white flu-orescent lamps for 16 h·day -1 .