New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science abstracts

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Efficient regeneration in two potential new crops for subtropical climates, the scarlet (Solanum aethiopicum) and gboma (S. macrocarpon) eggplants

Carmina Gisbert
Jaime Prohens
Fernando Nuez

Instituto de Conservación y Mejora  e la Agrodiversidad Valenciana (COMAV)
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia
Camino de Vera 14
46022 Valencia, Spain
email: fnuez@btc.upv.es

Abstract The scarlet (Solanum aethiopicum) and gboma (S. macrocarpon) eggplants are two African crops with potential for vegetable crop diversification in subtropical climates. Here we carried out the in vitro regeneration in two accessions of each species. In a comparison of five media, we found that those containing the cytokinin thidiazuron (TDZ) induced the greatest regeneration response from both cotyledonary and true leaf explants. After organogenesis induction, explants were transferred to Murashige & Skoog (MS) basal medium without growth regulators for 20 days. Isolated shoots rooted after culture on MS medium for 4–6 days. Optimisation of TDZ concentration was studied in a range of concentrations from 0.05 to 0.8 µM. In general, increases in the concentration of TDZ in the medium resulted in a higher density of buds, but they had a slower development. Although differences in regeneration ability were observed among varieties, TDZ concentrations of 0.1 or 0.2 µM gave the best results, with 70–100% explants with shoots and a mean of 2–7 shoots per explant. The efficient regeneration obtained for these species allows the propagation of important genotypes and their improvement through in vitro techniques.

Keywords Solanaceae; Solanum melongena; brinjal; thidiazuron; new crops

New Zealand Journal of Crop and Horticultural Science, 2006, Vol. 34: 55–62
0014–0671/06/3401–0055      © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2006
H05082; Online publication date 9 February 2006Received 11 July 2005; accepted 14 December 2005

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