(1) New Use Agriculture and Natural Plant Products Program, Rutgers University, Foran Hall, 59 Dudley Road, 08901 New Brunswick, NJ;(2) Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, 47907 West Lafayette, IN
Abstract:
Summary A method has been developed for the induction of adventitious shoots from leaf tissue of Echinacea pallida with subsequent whole-plant regeneration. Proliferating callus and shoot cultures were derived from leaf tissue explants placed on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine and naphthaleneacetic acid combinations. The optimum shoot regeneration frequency (63%) and number of shoots per explant (2.3 shoots per explant) was achieved using media supplemented with 26.6 μM 6-benzylaminopurine and 0.11 μM naphthaleneacetic acid. Rooting of regenerated shoot explants was successful on Murashige and Skoog medium, both with and without the addition of indole-3-butyric acid. All plantlets survived acclimatization, producing phenotypically normal plants in the greenhouse. This study demonstrates that leaf tissue of E. pallida is competent for adventitious shoot regeneration and establishes a useful method for the micropropagation of this important medicinal plant.