A. Hitomi et al., THE INFLUENCE OF AUXIN TYPE ON THE ARRAY OF SOMACLONAL VARIANTS GENERATED FROM SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS OF EGGPLANT, SOLANUM-MELONGENA L, Plant breeding, 117(4), 1998, pp. 379-383
Somaclonal variation is a possible source of variation in plant breedi
ng. To apply this approach to eggplant breeding, somaclonal variations
were observed among plants regenerated through somatic embryogenesis
induced by l-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic
acid (2,4-D). Variations including leaf shape, plant height, flower n
umber per cluster, fruit shape, anther number per flower and pollen fe
rtility were compared among approximate to 300 plants (R-0). Although
these variations were confirmed among plants regenerated using both au
xins, the frequencies of somaclonal variations in leaf shape, plant he
ight, fruit shape and pollen fertility in the NAA experiment were high
er than those in the 2,4-D experiment. Variations in flower number and
anther number were also confirmed among plants from both experiments,
although no significant differences in their frequency were observed.
Subsequently, the inheritance of variations (leaf shape, fruit shape,
and flower number) observed in R-0 was investigated from generation t
o generation (R-1). Variations in leaf shape and fruit shape were inhe
rited while those in flower number were not. From these results we con
cluded that, although a high frequency of somaclonal variations were o
bserved among plants from both methods, embryogenesis with NAA was mor
e efficient than 2,4-D in eggplant.