The Influence of pH on Microspore Embryogenesis of White Cabbage (<i>Brassica oleracea</i> L.)

Abstract

In vitro microspore culture is one of the top techniques utilised now-a-days for the obtaining of double haploid plants in many plant species, including Brassica. The pH of the medium is a critical factor for the success of In vitro microspore culture as it influences the invertase enzyme activity, translated at cellular level through an acceleration or reduction of sucrose cleavage. The results published until now shows rather contradictory findings, as the response of microspores have been proved to be highly depending on genotypes, most of them being focused on Brassica napus. Thus, in the present study, the effect of different NLN liquid medium pH, ranging between 5.0 to 7.0 were tested in order to establish the most suitable pH for the expression of embryogenic competences of microspores cultivated on medium In vitro and ultimately for the obtaining of microspore-derived embryos. Among the 11 values of pH tested, the best results were obtained on variants with pH 5.8 and 6.0, both in what concern the maintaining of microspores viability and the number of microspore-derived embryos. The findings of the present study provide a strong base for the establishment of an efficient protocol for the In vitro culture of microspore at Brassica oleracea L. genotypes with Romanian origin.