Morphogenesis in Three Cultivars of Boston Fern. III. Callus Production and Plantlet Differentiation from Cell Suspensions

Abstract

Byrne and Caponetti (1991) have demonstrated that callus can be induced from provascular tissue of terminal and lateral buds of stolon tips of three cultivars of Boston fern. Moreover, whole sporophytic plantlets were induced from the callus. These findings added new knowledge to the experimental morphogenesis of ferns, and led to the idea that Nephrolepis exaltata (L.) Schott and its cultivars could serve as a model system for continuing morphogenetic studies of ferns with cell suspension cultures. Cell suspension cultures have been prepared from numerous plant species since the beginning studies of Muir et al. (1958), Steward et al. (1958), and Halperin (1969). Such studies have not been done with ferns. A study of the induction, proliferation, and differentiation of single cells of Boston fern and its cultivars could serve to answer basic questions in the morphogenesis of ferns, and contribute to the development of newer methods for the rapid propagation of sporophyte plants for the nursery trade. The purpose of this investigation, therefore, was to describe the conditions necessary to produce single cell suspension cultures from stolon tip callus, and to induce whole plantlets from the callus in three cultivars of Boston ferns. MATERIALS AND METHODS