Effects of in vitro subculture on the physiological characteristics of adventitious root formation in microshoots of Castanea mollissima cv. ‘yanshanhong’

Abstract

Microshoots of Castanea mollissima cv. ‘yanshanhong’ in vitro acquired an enhanced rooting capability with increasing numbers of subculture. In this study, we investigated the effect of successive subculture on adventitious root formation in vitro by the determination of the endogenous hormone level and the enzyme activity. The levels of indoleacetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), cytokinins (CTK) and gibberellic acid (GA3) were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and the activities of indoleacetic acid oxidase (IAAO), peroxidase oxidase (POD), and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) were measured by ultraviolet-spectrophotometer assay after the induction of rooting at 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th subculture. The relationships between physiological characteristics and subculture numbers or rooting rate were as follows: The levels of endogenous IAA in microshoots gradually increased, and endogenous levels of ABA, CTK and GA3 in microshoots decreased slightly after serial subcultures. The level of IAA was highly correlated with subculture numbers and rooting rates. The ratios of IAA/ABA and IAA/CTK both acutely raised with increasing rooting rate during successive subcultures and had high correlations with rooting rate. The activity of IAAO and POD are significantly negatively related with subculture numbers, and the activity of PPO increased after subcultures.