Colony Formation from Cell Suspension Culture Protoplasts of Kiwifruit

Abstract

Actinidia deliciosa Liang and Ferguson, commonly known as kiwifruit is a dioecious climbing shrub of vigorous growth, recently introduced in Europe. Kiwifruit production mainly utilises one cultivar, Hayward; effectively clones of a genetically uniform nature. This practice could render the kiwifruit crop vulnerable to disease (1). For this reason, it is important to exploit new technologies that could lead to a broadening of the genetic base for this crop. Protoplasts provide such a starting point for many techniques aimed at the genetic modification of plant cells and ultimately whole plants. Currently little information is available concerning kiwifruit protoplast culture, with only two reports describing protoplast isolation (2,3). We report here on the first successful culture of kiwifruit protoplasts isolated from cell suspension cultures.