Biomics

Saintpaulia ionantha H.Wendl – Saintpaulias or African violet, due to its small size, unpretentiousness, high decorativeness and ability to bloom all year round is one of the most popular indoor plants in the world. The development of technologies for micropropagation of Saintpaulias is relevant, with the help of which it is possible to made a much larger number of seedlings than with the use of standard vegetative propagation. We tested a method for producing of regenerants on leaf explants of S. ionantha of the ETPenetta variety using Murashige-Skoog nutrient medium with growth regulators 6-benzylaminopurine (0.5 mg/l) and naphthylacetic acid (0.1 mg/l). About 400 young plants were produced from two leaves, which is an order of magnitude more than with the use of conventional vegetative propagation. Hybrid forms are also often used in S. ionantha breeding, but for some varieties they cannot be created for various reasons. One way to overcome this barrier is to use somatic hybridization technologies. For this, it is necessary to made viable protoplasts. Based on this, we tested three methods for producing S. ionantha protoplasts, of which the best approach was the one using a plasmolytic buffer with a higher concentration of mannitol (0.7 M) and the average time for enzymatic treatment of leaf fragments (8 hours) at a reduced concentration of macerozyme (0.5%).

Saintpaulias, African violet, in vitro, regeneration, micropropagation

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