Summary
The lengthy dormancy requirement of yew seeds can be overcome with a simple in vitro method. Viable embryos were excised from seeds ofTaxus brevifolia and four cultivars ofT. media over a range of developmental stages. Embryos were cultured in several basal media formulations (Whites’, Gamborg’s B5 and Murashige and Skoog’s) under dark or light. After a lag period of 1 to 2 wk, embryos of both species germinated precociously. Germination rates of up to 70% were obtained withT. media cv. Hicksi embryos. The highest rates of germination were obtained in White’s and MS media. Embryos excised from green seeds with undeveloped arils showed the highest germination rates. As the seeds approached maturity, in vitro germination rates of the excised embryos declined dramatically. Green seeds and seeds with developing arils could be stored at 5° C without large loss in embryo germination. Seeds with fully developed arils could be stored frozen at −20° C for 1 wk while still allowing about 50% of embryo germination. At least 30% of the precociously germinated embryos of both species were able to develop into full seedlings. Our method appears to be generally applicable toTaxus spp.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bartkowiak, S. Our forest trees. Warsaw: Polish Academy of Sciences; 1975.
Christen, A. A.; Bland, J.; Gibson, D. M. Cell culture as a means to produce taxol. Proc. Am. Assoc. Cancer Res. 30:566; 1989.
Dixon, R. A. Plant cell culture: a practical approach. Oxford:IRL Press; 1985:18–19.
Flores, H. E.; Hoy, M. W.; Pickard, J. J. Secondary metabolites from root cultures. Trends Biotech. 5:64–69; 1987.
Gamborg, O. L.; Miller, R. A.; Ojima, K. Nutrient requirements of suspension cultures of soybean root cells. Exp. Cell Res. 50:148–151; 1968.
Ho, R. H. Embryo culture. In: Cell and tissue culture in forestry, vol. 2. Dordrecht:Martinus Nijhoff Publishers; 1987:137–167.
Le Page, M. T. Misen en évidence d’une dormance associée à une une immaturité l’embryon chezTaxus baccata L. CR Acad. Sci. 266:482–484; 1968.
Le Page-Degivry, M. T. Influence de l’acide abscissique sur le dévelopment des embryons deTaxus baccata L. cultivés in vitro. Z. Pflanzenphysiol. 70:406–413; 1973.
Murashige, T.; Skoog, F. A revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tissue cultures. Physiol. Plant. 15:473–497; 1962.
National Cancer Institute. Proceedings of Taxol Conference. June 1990 (abstracts); 1990.
Raghavan, V. Embryogenesis in angiosperms: a developmental and experimental study. London:Cambridge University Press; 1986.
Wani, M. C.; Taylor, H. L.; Wall, M. E., et al. Plant antitumor agents. VI. The isolation and structure of taxol, a novel antileukemic and antitumor agent fromTaxus brevifolia. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 93:2325–2327; 1971.
White, P. Potentially unlimited growth of excised tomato root tips in a liquid medium. Plant Physiol. 9:585–600; 1934.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by a grant from the Hawaii Biotechnology Group, Inc.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Flores, H.E., Sgrignoli, P.J. In vitro culture and precocious germination ofTaxus embryos. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol - Plant 27, 139–142 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632197
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632197