Author(s)

Muruganantham Mookkan^1,2,3

¹Department of Plant Pathology and Weed Science, ARO Volcani Center, POB6, Bet Dagan, Israel.
²Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, Tifton, GA, USA.
³Present Address and Correspondence: Division of Plant Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA.

Cotyledonary node explants from 3 - 5-d-old seedling derived explants of Cucurbita pepo (L.) produced multiple shoots in Murashige and Skoog (MS) salts B5 vitamins containing medium in the presence of N6-benzylamino-purine BAP 1 mg/L + Thidiazuron TDZ 0.05 mg/L. After 4 weeks explants were subcultured to medium containing MS salts B5 Vitamins BAP 0.5 mg/L, Gibberellic acid GA3 1 mg/L and L-Glutamine 15 mg/L. Periodic excision of regenerated shoots from the explants increased shoot efficiency during subculture. The combination of L-Glutamine with BA and GA3 significantly increased the shoot proliferation. Elongated shoots were excised from shoot clumps and transferred to rooting medium containing indole-3-butyric acid (IBA, 1.0 mg/L). The rooted plants were hardened in small pot containing standardized garden soil, well developed plant transferred to greenhouse and survival rate was 85%.

Cucurbita pepo, Zucchini, Cotyledonary Node, Subculture

Mookkan, M. (2015) Direct Organogenesis from Cotyledonary Node Explants of Cucurbita pepo (L.)—An Important Zucchini Type Vegetable Crop. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 157-162. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2015.61018.