Tissue Culture and Cloning of Carnegiea gigantea, Cactaceae

Abstract

Cloning has become an established method of supplying valuable timber trees and other plants for commercial purposes. Cloning of these plants allows multiple copies to be produced from superior phenotypes. In this study, in vitro clones were produced from phenotypically selected, commercially available saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea). The clones were produced from tissue plugs obtained from surface sterilized saguaro. The plugs were transferred using standard aseptic technique to culture dishes containing solid Callus Initiation Medium (Gamborg's B-5 medium supplemented with 10 mg/l auxin and 8 g/l agar). The cultures were incubated under continuous cool fluorescent lights at 24 C until callus formation was observed. Healthy callus were transferred to solid Development Medium (Gamborg's B-5 medium supplemented with 10 mg/l auxin, 10.0 mg Kinetin, and 8 g/l agar) and further incubated. Resulting clones were prepared for in vivo conditions by transfer to sterile potting soil and successfully outplanted to the green house. Such clones may supply scarce C. gigantea for future research. The use of single genotypes for ecological applications should be avoided since they lack natural population variability.