In vitro propagation and chimeral traits of Cryptanthus 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone)

Abstract

The micropropagation of bromeliads has been reported since 1974 (Jones and Murashige). Though somaclonal variation and chimeric separation have been observed in the micropropagation of bromeliads (Jones and murashige, 1974; Mathews and Rao, 1982), some bromeliads in the generaguzmania, Neoregelia, Viiesia, Billbergia, Hohenbergia and Cryptanthus are routinely micropropagated (Capellades, 199 1). The current study showed for the first time that the leaves of a greenhouse grown bromeliad was able to regenerate plantlets. True to type, green and albino plantlets were obtained from callus produced by the leaves of greenhouse grown Cryptanthus 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone) which is terrestrial ornamental bromeliad in the form of a rosette whose leaves have thin pink margins and sometimes intermarginal logitudinal pink stripes of various width. Leaf callus production was highest in a solid MS medium with 10 liM NAA, IBA and BA. C. 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone) has two tunicas (Ll and L2). I-eaf callus mainly arose from the L2 and L3 (the cotpus) of the leaf explant. The medium with 0.3 14M NAA, IBA and BA produced the most number of non-albino plantlets per test-tube. The formation of albino plantlets usually preceeded that of the non-albino plantlets. The occurrence of pure green and albino plantlets suggests that C. 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone) is a chimera and separation of the chimeric layers took place during micropropagation. Based on the data from the current research, it was determined that C 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone) is a GWG chimera, i.e., the Ll is green, the L2 is white or albino, and the L3 is green, the albino plantlet is a GWW chimera, the green plantlet is most likely a GGG plant, and the striped plantlet is a true to GWG chimera. The fact that both the GWW and GWG plantlets were obtained suggests that the formation of some of the adventitious buds in the leaf callus of C 'Marian Oppenheimer' (wide leaf clone) may have been multicelluar and multihistogenic in origin.