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In vitro culture initiation and multiplication
significant, they are important in comparing the two explant types and are described
in the next few paragraphs.
The percentage cultures that showed some growth response was higher for
hypocotyls (92.3%) than embryos (67.3%). Embryos showed a higher percentage
growth response on medium supplemented with both cytokinins and auxins (78.3%)
than on a medium with only cytokinins (60.0%). This effect was not as pronounced
for seedling hypocotyls; although the highest percentage response was observed for
media with both cytokinins and auxins, there was only a 5% difference between the
percentage response on these media and the percentage response on media with
only cytokinins.
The seedling hypocotyls showed higher rooting (53.8%) than the excised embryos
(22.2%) on the control medium. A higher percentage of the shoots produced by
embryos (33.3%) on a medium supplemented with 0.5 µM kinetin were rooted
compared to seedling hypocotyl cultures (15.8%) on the same medium. On a
medium supplemented with 2.3 µM kinetin, seedling hypocotyls produced a higher
amount of rooted shoots (26.3% compared to 11.8% for embryos). None of the
shoots produced by excised embryos on a medium supplemented with 23.2 µM
kinetin rooted, whereas 36.8% of the shoots produced by seedling hypocotyls on this
medium rooted. None of the shoots produced by excised embryos on a medium
supplemented with 2.3, 4.7 or 23.2 µM kinetin or 0.5 µM NAA rooted, whereas at
least 20% of shoots produced by seedling hypocotyls on these media were rooted.
The seedling hypocotyls showed higher rooting percentage (>30%) than the excised
embryos (