Activated charcoal affects morphogenesis and enhances sporophyte regeneration during leaf cell suspension culture of Platycerium bifurcatum

In a leaf cell suspension culture of Platycerium bifurcatum, the incorporation of activated charcoal (AC) greatly increased the number of regenerated sporophytes even in growth regulator-free medium. The degree of improvement was dependent on cell aggregate sizes and medium composition. The maximal increase was observed in medium with 5.37 μM NAA and 4.44 μM BA, from 9 to 1520 sporophytes. The qualitative improvement by AC included: (1) regeneration of single sporophytes, which was relatively less frequent in non-AC media, (2) prevention of the formation of gametophyte clusters prior to sporophyte regeneration from 30- to 60-μm cells cultured in MS basal medium, (3) prevention of the formation of bud clusters, sporophytes with multiple bud primordia, `nodule'-like bud clusters in growth regulator containing media, and (4) prevention of the occurrence of hyperhydricity of regenerated sporophytes. Received: 9 December 1996 / Revision received: 18 April 1997 / Accepted: 5 July 1997