In Vitro Propagation of Resurrection Plant Selaginella pulvinata Using Frond Tips as Explants

Abstract

The resurrection plant Selaginella pulvinata (Hook. & Grev.) Maxim is used as an ornamental and medicinal plant. It is also a good candidate for exploring the desiccation tolerance of resurrection plants. However, there is not an efficient propagation method for S. pulvinata. In the present study, we evaluated the establishment of in vitro propagation of S. pulvinata using frond tips as explants. The original shoot induction, adventitious shoot proliferation and plantlet growth media, and substrate type of plantlet acclimatization were investigated. The highest induction rate of original shoots (61.77 ± 5.17%) was obtained on half-strength (1/2) MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg·L−1 N6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). The 1/2 MS with 1.0 mg·L−1 BAP was the most effective medium for the adventitious shoot proliferation. The quarter-strength (1/4) MS containing 0.1% (w/v) active charcoal (AC) was optimum for plantlets proliferated from adventitious shoots and plantlet growth. Approximately 98 plantlets could be obtained from one single original shoot via one-time shoot proliferation cultivation and plantlet cultivation. The acclimated plants on a 5:1 (v/v) mixture of peat and perlite had the highest survival rate (92.13 ± 1.67%). The acclimated plants maintained excellent resurrection ability.

In vitro propagation and long-term observation of acclimated plants in endangered tree fern Alsophila costularis

“…Different from the role of cytokinins in GGB system of fern plants, cytokinin TDZ effectively induced protocorm-like body (PLB) formation from root tips of Doritaenopsis (Park et al, 2003), cytokinin BA was bene cial to the shoot multiplication of Malus orientalis (Amirchakhmaghi et al 2019). Although the resurrection plant Selaginella pulvinata belongs to fern-allies, not GGBs but adventitious buds were induced by culturing the sterilized frond tips on the media containing various concentrations of BAP or TDZ (Yu et al 2021b). Moreover, unlike cytokinin-dependent GGB induction of A. costularis studied here, somatic embryo of tree fern Cyathea delgadii could be induced on the medium without cytokinins and other plant growth regulators by using explants (length 2.5 mm) excised from the youngest leaf of an etiolated sporophyte (Mikuła et al, 2015a, b).…”