Germination of zygotic embryos and in vitro growth of seedlings of wild types of Ensete ventricosum

Abstract

Ensete ventricosum (Musaceae) is an important food crop in Ethiopia. Germination of zygotic embryos from the two wild types (W01 and W02) of E. ventricosum was investigated in vitro on six media compositions with and without activated charcoal. The germination rate of embryos of W01 on Murashige and Skoog medium without plant growth regulators and activated charcoal was 34%. This increased to 63% when the medium was supplemented with 2.22 μM benzyladenine, 1.14 μM indole-3-acetic acid and 5 g l− 1 AC. For type W02, germination was 30% when Murashige and Skoog medium was supplemented with 6.66 μM benzyladenine, 9.05 μM 2,4-D and 1.14 μM indole-3-acetic acid in the absence of activated charcoal. This improved to 88% with the inclusion of activated charcoal into the medium. The presence of activated charcoal in the media prevented callus formation and blackening of germinating embryos and promoted germination and seedling development. The development of the embryos was genotype and treatment dependent.