Primary and secondary somatic embryogenesis in Chrysanthemum cv. Euro

Somatic embryogenesis was induced from in vivo grown leaf explants of Chrysanthemum cv. Euro incubated on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 2.0 mg/L Kinetin, yielding the highest mean number of embryos (42 ± 5.97) per explant after 5 weeks of culture. We evaluated the effects of basal medium, various concentrations of sucrose, and timentin on the proliferation of secondary somatic embryos. MS medium was observed to be the more effective in promoting the proliferation of somatic embryos than half-strength Murashige and Skoog (1/2MS). In addition, timentin was also more efficient in induction of secondary embryogenesis than sucrose. Whole plantlets were obtained by culturing of secondary embryos on hormone-free MS medium and successfully acclimated in the green house.