Micropropagation and hairy root culture of Solanum Laciniatum Ait.

Summary An efficient system for in vitro micropropagation of Solanum laciniatum Ait. has been established. Shoot induction on leaf explants was most successful on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 10 μM N⁶-benzyladenine (BA) and 1 μM α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). BA (13 μM) was optimal for further shoot multiplication, and rooting of separated shoots was achieved on medium without plant growth regulators. At each subculture, 20–25 shoots were obtained on each explant, from which six to eight were suitable for separation and further rooting. Leaf explants grown in vitro were successfully infected by Agrobacterium rhizogenes ATCC 15834. The established hairy root culture was, on the basis of dry weight, more productive when grown on half-strength MS medium than on full-strength MS (3% sucrose) and full-strength MS (6% sucrose) medium. The amount of solasodine-containing glycoalkaloids in hairy roots as measured by a colorimetric method was 0.3–1% of dry weight, which is higher than in the shoot culture (0.5% of dry weight) and lower than in leaves of in vivo-grown plants (1.1–1.4% of dry weight). The amount of solasodine-containing glycoalkaloids in leaves of in vivo-grown plants of S. laciniatum was similar to the related species Solanum aviculare Forst. Both species are morphologically similar, therefore we effectively distinguished them by flow cytometry. The genome size of S. laciniatum was determined as 4.03 pg and the genome size of S. aviculare as 1.69 pg.