Improvement of ex vitro transfer of tobacco plantlets by addition of abscisic acid to the last subculture.
Abstract
Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) plantlets were grown on Murashige and Skoog medium in ventilated Magenta boxes and for the last subculture 10 A mu M ABA was added to the medium. After three weeks plantlets were transferred into pots with Perlite moistened with water and grown in controlled conditions (16-h photoperiod, day/night temperature 25/20 A degrees C, air humidity about 45 %) either under low or high irradiance of 150 (LI) and 700 (HI) A mu mol m(-2) s(-1), respectively.
Content of endogenous ABA was 271.7 pmol g(-1)(f.m.) in ABA treated plantlets, while in control plantlets it was only 53.3 pmol g(-1)(f.m.). After ex vitro transfer, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate decreased considerably in comparison with in vitro grown plantlets and remained lower also 7 d after ex vitro transfer, especially in ABA-treated plants and so wilting of plants was practically eliminated.