RAPID REGENERATION OF WHOLE PLANTS IN LARGE CRABGRASS (DIGITARIA SANGUINALIS L.) USING THIN CELL LAYER CULTURE

A method was designed to produce rapidly (10-14 days) and directly (wi thout intermediate callus) whole plants of Digitaria sanguinalis with a high yield without subculture. These plants developed from new struc tures, designated ''pseudo-embryogenic structures'', initiated only 1 week after the culture of tranverse thin cell layers (tTCLs), i.e., th in stem sections, on a Murashige and Skoog medium containing 3% sucros e and a combination of a low concentration of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyaceti c acid (1 mu M) and a high concentration of 6-benzylaminopurine (10 mu M). The fresh weight of plants regenerated per tTCL on gelrite was 6 times higher than with agar and 30 times higher than with agarose.