Different Developmental Stages of Mother Plants Induct Different Morphogenesis Pathways in In Vitro Culture of Fritillaria imperialis and Fritillaria persica

Abstract

Fritillaria imperialis and Fritillaria persica are important medicinal and ornamental plants that are native to Iran. Wild populations of Fritillaria are at risk of extinction. For the first time, capability of developmental stages in respect to induction of different morphogenesis pathways from petal tissue was studied in detail. The developmental stages were green unopened flowers, colored unopened flowers, and open flowers. Direct bulblet regeneration and direct somatic embryogenesis were observed from green unopened flowers in both F. imperialis and F. persica. More bulblet regeneration was produced in F. imperialis in contrast with F. persica in colored unopened flowers. Somatic embryogenesis via callus was established in green unopened flowers of F. persica with cold pretreatment. The effect of light on induction of different morphogenesis pathways was nonsignificant except for green unopened flowers of F. persica with cold treatment. Our results showed that the developmental stages of petal explants play a significant role in micropropagation of Fritillaria and induction of different morphogenesis pathways.