Ovule culture of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) and closely related species

✍ Scribed by Ruth S. Kobayashi; Stephen L. Sinden; John C. Bouwkamp

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 462 KB
• Volume: 32
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0167-6857
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00040119

✦ Synopsis

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.) breeding has been hampered by self-and cross-incompatibilities that are frequently encountered among the plants in the section Batatas. Ovule culture techniques were developed to assist in overcoming some of these incompatibilities. Ovules that contain embryos at the late globular to heart shaped stage of development were cultured on MS medium containing full strength or one-half strength salts with 3%, 8% or 12% sucrose. Ovules were cultured either intact or after slicing. Ovules of I. triloba and I. trifida were successfully cultured as early as 3 and 4 days after pollination while sweet potato ovules were successfully cultured 5 and 6 days after pollination. The percentage of ovules with developing embryos on the media tested ranged from 27.8% to 50.2%. The highest percentage of embryos developed when the ovules were sliced and cultured on medium containing one-half MS salts and 8% sucrose. Three plants were recovered from cultured ovules of incompatible interspecific crosses.