Plant Regeneration from Axillary Buds of Triploid Watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.)

Abstract

Watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.) is a widely grown crop throughout the tropics and subtropics. In Mexico, it is an economically important crop. In vitro adventitious shoot regeneration of watermelon has been reported from shoot tip culture, leaf, hypocotyl, and cotyledons. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate in vitro plant regeneration from axillary buds of triploid watermelon. Axillary buds explants were prepared from shoot of commercial cultivar in field of 60 old day plants. Explants of 2 to 3 mm were incubated 2 weeks on Murashige and Skoog (MS) shoot regeneration medium containing 2.5 mg/L kinetin (KT) or indole-3-butyric acid (IBA), or gibberellic acid (GA3), followed by 3 weeks on shoot elongation medium supplemented with different combinations of the same phytohormones. The percentage of explants (83% to 90%) that produced shoots, expansion in size of explant (0.81–1 cm) and shoot length (6 mm) were highest in MS medium containing KT or IBA. In the shoot elongation step, shoot length (0.9–1 cm) and leaves number (6–7) were highest in MS medium supplemented with 2.5 mg/L of KT or GA3 and 0.2 mg/L IBA, but the better induction of roots in elongated shoot occurred on MS medium with 2.5 mg/L KT and 0.2 mg/L IBA. The results show that axillary buds from watermelon is an alternative for the micropropagation of this crop.