Abstract
ABSTRACT Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus ex Hook. F.; Asteraceae), is one of the most economically important ornamental plants due to its aesthetic value. In the present study, we established a micropropagation method for the large-scale production of quality planting material of gerbera ‘Pink Melody’. Eighty-six percent of the capitulum explants produced adventitious shoots (15.44 ± 0.34 shoots per capitulum) on Murashige and Skoogs (MS) medium containing 2 mg L−1 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) after six weeks of incubation. The highest shoot multiplication rate (17 shoots per explant) was obtained on MS medium supplemented with BAP and meta-Topolin (each at 2 mg L−1) after eight weeks. The micro-shoots were successfully rooted (91.35%) on half-strength MS medium containing 2 mg L−1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) within four weeks. The micropropagated plantlets were acclimatized with a 97.5% survival rate and produced flowers with no visible morphological aberrations.
Highlights
Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus ex Hook. f.; Asteraceae) is a popular ornamental plant in the floriculture industry, ranked among the ten most highly traded ornamental flowering plants in the world (Xia et al, 2006; Mosqueda Frómeta et al, 2017)
The type and concentration of plant growth regulators (PGRs) required for in vitro morphogenesis is dependent on the type of explant, genotype or species (Meyer; Van Staden, 1988; Nhut et al, 2007), and media composition (Bhatia; Singh; Singh, 2012; Niedz et al, 2014)
While, ~4 shoots/capitulum was obtained on Murashige and Skoogs (MS) medium with 4 mg L-1 Kinetin with 0.05 mg L-1 indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) (Tyagi; Kothari, 2004)
Summary
Gerbera (Gerbera jamesonii Bolus ex Hook. f.; Asteraceae) is a popular ornamental plant in the floriculture industry, ranked among the ten most highly traded ornamental flowering plants in the world (Xia et al, 2006; Mosqueda Frómeta et al, 2017). The market value of gerbera is high in the UK, USA, Japan, and Germany, while the Netherlands, Indonesia, and Malaysia are the leading gerbera suppliers (Rashmi et al, 2018). Gerberas are ranked 5th among cut flower sales in the Netherlands at 140 million euros and 4th in terms of production with 1.07 billion units produced annually (Royal Flora of Holland, 2017). Gerbera can be grown from seed as well as propagated via vegetative methods. A limited number of plants can be obtained through vegetative propagation and the transmission of disease from stock plants is common (Kanwar; Kumar, 2008; Cardoso; Teixeira da Silva, 2013). Micropropagation techniques are extensively utilized for large-scale propagation of ornamental and horticulturally important plants, including gerbera (Cardoso; Teixeira da Silva, 2013). Genetic engineering can be applied to micropropagation methods to develop qualitative traits such as color variation, fragrance, shelf-life, shape, and resistance to biotic or abiotic stress (Kishi-Kaboshi et al, 2018; Pramanik et al, 2021)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
