|
Growth rate, variation, and state of virus infection were investigated in somatic embryo-derived plants (SEP) of ´Desio´ and ´Astra´ carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus). The SEPs grew slower than rooted cutting plants (CP) in early growing stage, but new shoots of the SEPs formed after pinching grew almost like those of CPs. Both types of the plants had almost same number of nodes, and bloomed at the same period. When the embryogenic calluses were maintained less than a year, morphological variants were hardly observed among the regenerated SEPs. However, from those maintained over 170 weeks, 9 variants showing leaf chimera, dwarf, or bunch type growth were noticed out of regenerated 220 SEPs. Based on dot blotting and ELISA assays, all meristem-cultured plants, seed-propagated plants, CPs, and SEPs were found to be infected with CarRSV, but only seed-propagated plants and SEPs were free from CatMV.
|