In vitro shoot proliferation of Begonia pavonina: a comparison of semisolid, liquid, and temporary immersion medium system / Rosilah Ab Aziz … [et al.]

The in vitro shoot proliferation of endemic Begonia pavonina in three culture conditions i.e semisolid medium (SM), liquid culture medium (LM) and in temporary immersion bioreactor system (RITA®) wasanalyzed in this study. To minimize contamination rates, seeds were surface sterilized and cultured on MS basal media. The clean raised shoots were then used as explants for inoculation onto the tested culture conditions. In this experiment, the explants were maintained in MS medium supplemented with 0.1mgL-1 BAP for shoot multiplication. After 4 weeks of incubation, higher regeneration rates were observed in TIM as compared to other medium conditions. The maximum shoot number was obtained from TIM system with a mean of 5.30 shoots per explant, followed by LM (2.47 shoots per explant) and SM (1.2 shoots per explant). Shoot hyperhydration was also lowest in a TIM system. Overall, TIM was shown to produce higher shoot multiplications combined with healthy morphological characteristics of plantlets. Shoot cultures from the all cultures were successfully rooted in vitro and acclimatized well in the greenhouse.