Efficient selection of a high-yield line by using somaclonal variation in Japanese butterbur (<i>Petasites japonicus</i>)

Abstract

To induce somaclonal variations related to plant yield, adventitious buds were directly regenerated from immature flowerheads of a selected line A of the 'Aichi Wase Fuki' of Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonicus). Among the 280 independent regenerants obtained from 300 immature flowerheads, about 2/3 were regenerated within 90 d of culture. The total yield of the randomly selected 50 lines among the early regenerants ranged from 13.8 to 21.6 kg m � 2 (average: 18.2 kg m � 2 ) in the field, and a high correlation (r�� 0.869) was observed between the total yield and the period required for the third leaf initiation in flowerhead culture. A high correlation (r� 0.923) was also observed between the yield in the field and the fresh weight of rhizomes at 3 months of culture in the greenhouse. Since the yield of the original line A was 16.4 kg m � 2 , direct adventitious bud regeneration is a useful technique for inducing high yielding variants in Japanese butterbur, which might be efficiently selected by monitoring the period required for third leaf initiation and the weight of rhizomes.