Abstract
Astragalus holmgreniorum (Holmgren milkvetch) is a plant of the Fabaceae family endemic to northwestern Arizona and Washington County, Utah. The species is threatened by urban and recreational development and has been listed as endangered. Here we report a protocol for micropropagation of A. holmgreniorum that could provide a system for preservation of this species and for biotechnological applications. The best response for embryo formation and development of shoots from those embryos was obtained with Treatments 4 (1 mg/L BAP, 0 mg/L 2,4-D) and 6 (1 mg/L BAP, 7 mg/L 2,4-D). The response to these treatments is similar for both stem and leaf explants. The best response was observed when the leaf explants were placed with the abaxial side in contact with the media. After 1–3 weeks exposure of the explants to the media with growth regulators, the explants should be moved to media with no growth regulators to initiate the morphogenetic process. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of successful micropropagation of A. holmgreniorum.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anis M, Faisal M (2005) In vitro regeneration and mass multiplication of Psoralea corylifolia—an endangered medicinal plant. Ind J Biotech 4:261–264
Arora R, Bojwani SS (1989) In vitro propagation and low temperature storage of Saussurea lappa C.B. Clarke, an endangered medicinal plant. Plant Cell Rep 8:44–47
Beale MH, Sponsel VM (1993) Future directions in plant hormone research. J Plant Growth Regul 12:227–235
Buechel S, Leibfried A, To JP, Zhao Z, Andersen SU, Kieber JJ, Lohmann JU (2010) Role of A-type Arabidopsis response regulators in meristem maintenance and regeneration. Eur J Cell Biol 89(2–3):279–284
Cano-Castillo M, Serrano-Martínez F, Casas JL (2009) In vitro propagation of Astragalus nitidiflorus (Leguminosae), an endemic and endangered species from South-East of Spain. Acta Hort (ISHS) 812:545–550
Cho HJ, Widholm JM, Tanaka N, Nakanishi Y, Murooka Y (1998) Agrobacterium rhizogenes-mediated transformation and regeneration of the legume Astragalus sinicus (Chinese milk vetch). Plant Sci 138:53–65
Dale JE (1988) The control of leaf expansion. Ann Rev Plant Physiol 39:267–295
Dodds JH, Robert LW (1995) Experiment in plant tissue culture. Cambridge University Press, New York
Erisen S, Yorgancilar M, Atalay E, Babaoglu M, Duran A (2010) Callus induction and plant regeneration of the endemic Astragalus nezaketae in Turkey. Electron J Biotechnol 10.2225 13(6):1–7
Fabijan DM, Taylor JS, Reid DM (1981) Adventitious rooting in hypocotyls of sunflower (Helianthus annuus) seedlings. Actions of gibberellins, cytokinins and ethylene. Physiol Plant 53:589–597
Gaspar T, Kevers C, Penel C, Greppin H, Reid DM, Thorpe TA (1996) Plant hormones and plant growth regulators in plant tissue culture. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol 32:272–289
Hasancebi S, Turgut-Kara N, Cakir O, Ari S (2011) Micropropagation and root culture of Turkish endemic Astragalus chrysochlorus (leguminosae). Turk J Bot 35:203–210
Hou SW, Jia JF (2004) High frequency plant regeneration from Astragalus melilotoides hypocotyl and stem explants via somatic embryogenesis and organogenesis. Plant Cell Tissue Org Cult 79(1):95–100
Karuppusamy S, Kiranmai C, Aruna V, Pullaiah T (2006) Micropropagation of Banasushava pedata—an endangered medicinal plant of South India. Plant Tissue cult Biotechnol 16(2):85–94
Kubota C, Kakizaki N, Kozai T (2001) Growth and net photosynthetic rate of tomato plantlets during photoautotrophic and photomixotrophic micropropagation. HortScience 36(1):49–52
Kuhnle JA, Fuller G, Corse J, Mackey BE (1977) Antisenescent activity of natural cytokinins. Physiol Plant 41(1):14–21
Luo JP, Jia JF (1998) Plant regeneration from callus protoplasts of the forage legume Astragalus adsurgens Pall. Plant Cell Rep 17:313–317
Luo JP, Jia JF, Gu YH, Liu J (1999) High frequency somatic embryogenesis and plant regeneration in callus cultures of Astragalus adsurgens. Plant Sci 143:93–99
Mikulík J (1999) Propagation of endangered plant species by tissue cultures. Acta Univ Palacki Olomuc Fac Rer Nat 37:27–33
Miller CO, Skoog F, von Saltza MH, Strong M (1955) Kinetin, a cell division factor from deoxyribonucleic acid. J Am Chem Soc 77:1329–1334
Murashige T, Skoog F (1962) A revised medium for rapid growth and bioassays with tobacco tissue cultures. Physiol Plant 15:473–497
Nooden LD, Leopold AC (1988) Senescence and aging in plants. Academic Press, San Diego
Perrot-Rechenmann C (2010) Cellular responses to auxin: division versus expansion. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol 2(5):a001446. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a001446
Skoog F, Miller CO (1957) Chemical regulation of growth and organ formation in plant tissue cultures in vitro. Symp Soc Exp Biol 11:118–131
Stanilova M, Ilcheva VP, Zagorska NA (1994) Morphogenetic potential and in vitro micropropagation of endangered plant species Leucojum aestivum L. and Lilium rhodopaeum Delip). Plant Cell Rep 13:451–453
Stubben C (1997) Habitat characteristics of Astragalus holmgreniorum Barneby and genetic variation among two rare milkvetches in Southwestern Utah. Masters of Science Thesis, Provo, Utah, p 59
Su YH, Liu YB, Zhang XS (2011) Auxin–cytokinin interaction regulates meristem development. Mol Plant 4(4):616–625
Sunderland N (1960) Cell division and expansion in the growth of the leaf. J Exp Bot 11:68–80
Turgut-Kara N, Ari S (2006) Micropropagation of Astragalus maximus Willd. Biotechnol Biotechnol Equip 1:20–22
Turgut-Kara N, Ari S (2008) In vitro plant regeneration from embryogenic cell suspension culture of Astragalus crysochlorus (Leguminoseae). Afr J Biotech 7(9):1250–1255
Uppendra D, Sumit M, Meena J (2005) Organogenesis, embryogenesis and synthetic seed production in Arnebia euchroma—a critically endangered medicinal plant of the Himalaya. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol Plant 41:244–248
US Fish and Wildlife Service (2006) Astragalus holmgreniorum (Holmgren milk-vetch) and Astragalus ampullarioides (Shivwits milk-vetch) recovery plan. US Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, p xi + 106
Van Buren R, Harper KT (2003) Demographic and environmental relations of two rare Astragalus species endemic to Washington County, Utah: Astragalus holmgreniorum and A. ampullarioides. West North Am Nat 63(2):236–243
Werner T, Schmüulling T (2009) Cytokinin action in plant development. Curr Opin Plant Biol 12:527–538
Yildiz M, Ozgen M (2004) The effect of a submersion pretreatment on in vitro explant growth and shoot regeneration from hypocotyls of flax (Linum usitatissimum). Plant Cell Tissue Organ Cult 77:111–115
Acknowledgments
This work was funded by a grant from the Scholarly Activities Committee at Utah Valley University given to the authors. We would like to thank Ally Searle for the Astragalus seeds provided from her research project. We are also thankful to the students Dallas Paul, Aubrey Pimsakul, Elly Thomas, Nellie Myatt and Marie Peterson for helping in the transplanting of cultures.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hill, P., Gutierrez, B., Carmack, L. et al. Micropropagation of Astragalus holmgreniorum (Holmgren milkvetch), an endemic and endangered species. Plant Cell Tiss Organ Cult 121, 381–387 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-015-0708-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11240-015-0708-4