Shoot regeneration and ploidy variation in tissue culture of honeydew melon (Cucumis melo L. inodorus)
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The Cucumis melo L. inodorus honeydew melon variant is one of the most consumed melons in the USA, and has important commercial and nutritional value. There is a need for improvement of several genetic traits in the US honeydew melon, such as nutrition, drought tolerance, and disease resistance. We investigated the existing regeneration media and optimized the medium composition for an elite honeydew diploid breeding line, "150", using cotyledonary explants. Four combinations of three different plant growth regulators, 6-benzyladenine, abscisic acid, and indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), were tested in the shoot regeneration media. The presence of IAA in the medium caused the cotyledon explants to curl away from the medium, which made antibiotic selection problematic in our previous study. Omission of IAA from the culture media eliminated this problem and did not impact the shoot regeneration capacity of the cotyledonary explants. We also estimated the ploidy of regenerated plants using flow cytometry, and 50-60% were found to be polyploid (tetraploid or mixoploid). However, contrary to other studies, these polyploid plants did not show major morphological differences compared to the diploid plants. 2012 The Society for In Vitro Biology.
