A Preliminary Research on Microspore Culture in Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

Microspore embryogenesis is a process in which immature male gametophytes are induced to divert them from their gametophytic pathway toward embryo development during in vitro culture. In this study, therefore, it was aimed to determine the response of two eggplant cultivars to microspore culture. For this purpose, the microspores were firstly isolated from the anthers at the appropriate stage of microspore development (containing mostly vacuolate microspores and young bicellular pollen) and subjected to pre-treatment at 35°C for 3 days in dark conditions. After pre-treatment, the microspores were cultured in liquid NLN culture medium supplemented with 2% sucrose, 0.5 mg/l naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), and 0.5 mg/l, 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), pH 5.9, and kept in the dark at 25°C for one month. During this culture process, the microspore embryogenesis induction was microscopically analyzed and focused on the initial stages of this developmental process. Immadiately after induction, before the microspores develop into callus, they were induced to divide symmetrically and form multinucleated structures, and then microspores did not form direct embryos and formed callus. At the end of one month, only callus formation occurred from microspores and total callus number per petri was analyzed. The average calli for G07-1 cultivars was 288 calli/petri, while it was 64 calli/petri dish for G07-2 cultivars. It is thought that this research will guide both practical and basic researches on the development of microspore culture technique