Effect of different explants in callus induction
During the period of callus induction, the callus induced by different types of explants (leaf, stem, petal and stamen) showed significant differences. We found that the tender leaves from seedlings formed light yellow-green callus quickly, with about 15 days cultured in dark, which started to differentiate to adventitious buds whithin 30 days (Fig. 1a). Afterwards, light green granular callus gradually grew around the periphery with tight texture surface (Fig. 1b). After subcultured 60 days, the ratios of callus induction (98.48%) and shoot initiation (77.07%) were higher than that of other explants (Table 1). The tender stems from seedlings swelled and formed light yellow-green callus after 30 days (Fig. 1c). Then the callus became green or light pink, rigidity and granule during the light culture for 45 days (Fig. 1d). At the end of this period, the callus induction and shoot initiation rate were reached to 96.93% and 66.94%, respectively (Table 1). But the tender leaves and stems from in vitro cultures formed white or light yellow callus slowly (Fig. 1e, f), and the shoot initiation rate were reached to 58.54% and 35.80%, respectively (Table 1). The tender leaves and stems from branch shoots of the adult plant failed to differentiate to adventitious buds and formed white or light yellow, incompact and friable callus, which browning occurred easily (Fig. 1g, h). The stamens formed light pink, transparent and loose calli after 45 days (Fig. 1i), while the petals formed pink or light yellow, transparent and tight callusing tissue on the edge of injury after 45 days (Fig. 1j). And they both failed to differentiate into adventitious buds although the callus induction rate up to 85.43% and 83.73%, respectively (Table 1). Collectively, tender leaves and tender stems from the seed seedlings and in vitro culture as explants were appropriate for the regeneration of R. tomentosa, especially the tender leaves.
Effect of various combinations of 6-BA, NAA and TDZ in callus induction
To investigate the effect of PGRs on regeneration, we tested twelve MS medium with different combination of PGRs (6-BA, NAA and TDZ). Treatment of 6-BA 0.5 mg/L + NAA 0.05 mg/L and 6-BA 1 mg/L + NAA 0.5 mg/Lwere both promoted callus induction, but excessive concentrations of PGRs (6-BA 2 mg/L + NAA 2 mg/L) inhibited the formation of effective buds. In addition, high TDZ concentration (0.02 mg/L) caused less callus formation. Our results indicated that optimum callus occurred at the basal medium with 0.5 mg/L 6-BA + 0.05 mg/L NAA + 0.005 mg/L TDZ, while the callus induction reached to 97.33% with 88.36% shoot initiation rate (Table 2).
Adventitious shoots differentiation potential of different type of calli
Calli originated from different explants varied greatly in color, texture and shape. To examine the differentiation potential of different type of calli, we cultured 50 clumps of each callus on the same medium and calculated the differentiation rate. Based on three independent experiments, we found that more than 90% of the group A calli ( light yellow-green, rigidity and granule) generated adventitious shoots after 60 d induction, which is significantly higher than that of the group B calli (dark brown, rigidity and nubbly) (Table 3). The callus of group C (white, incompact and friable) failed to differentiate into embryoids and buds (Table 3). The results indicated that the light yellow-green, rigidity and granule calli were competent to form adventitious shoots and embryoids.
Effect of basal medium and PGRs on adventitious shoots differentiation
Among the different combination of basal media, 6-BA and NAA, we found that 1/2 MS supplemented with 1 mg/L 6-BA and 0.1 mg/L NAA was the best recipe to produce cluster or single shoot organogenesis with the frequency of regeneration response rate of 78.00% (Fig. 2a, b, Table 4). MS and B5 media both induced cluster adventitious shoots with a low level efficiency down to 24.67% and 28.67%, respectively (Fig. 2c, d, Table 4). Together, we identified that the basal medium and PGRs affected the induction of adventitious shoots, especially in the proliferation of cluster or single shoots.
Effect of temperature and light intensity on the proliferation of shoot bud in R. tomentosa
The proliferation and differentiation of the adventitious shoots were suitable at 26 ℃ and 120 µmol m−2s−1 or 32 ℃ and 120 µmol m−2s−1 with comparable regeneration response rate around 85%. Meanwhile, cluster and single shoot bud grew quickly with many embryoids and few glassy plantlets under such conditions (Table 5). Low temperature and light intensity (20 ℃, 60 µmol m−2s−1) strongly induced light green glassy plantlets and inhibited buds differentiation with 4.33% frequency of regeneration response rate (Table 5). Cluster bud grew slowly at low light intensity while the single bud growth was dramatically inhibited. The results indicated that high light intensity and temperature promoted the proliferation of shoot bud in R. tomentosa.
Rooting and acclimatization
Clusters of shoots were divided into individual shoots and transferred to rooting medium for rooting. We surprisingly found that roots arose in all shoots on PGR-free 1/2 MS medium (Table 6, Fig. 3a). Moreover, the adventitious root was also occurred rapidly on the stem near the incision exposed to the medium within 15 days (Fig. 3a). Rooting on the medium with NAA 0.05 mg/L was inhibited and down to 56.67% (Table 6, Fig. 3b). The addition of IBA 0.5 mg/L effectively reduced the rooting rate to 71.11% with 6 ~ 8 roots per shoot (Table 6, Fig. 3c). Rooting was occurred about 1cm above the cut site after 15 days and the rooting rate was about 45% with 2 ~ 3 roots per shoot under the medium with IBA (0.5 mg/L) and NAA (0.05 mg/L) (Table 6, Fig. 3d). Callus was easily formed from the cutting site but rooting was at a low level with a percentage of 11.11% when treated with 0.5 mg/L NAA (Table 6). The regenerative plantlets with roots were transplanted to sandy soil and 90% plantlets were survived (Fig. 3e, f). Our results indicated that the PGR-free 1/2 MS medium was suitable for rooting in R. tomentosa, moreover the rapidly formed adventitious root from the exposed stem near the incision provided a novel and quick rooting solution to obtain regenerated plantlets in R. tomentosa.