Systems of Plant Regeneration in Gentian In Vitro Cultures

This chapter reviews the development of plant tissue culture and biotechnology of gentians during the last thirty years. The majority of 30 species studied belong to the genus Gentiana and those gentians are included into European flora. Biochemical studies aimed secondary metabolites production are not presented in the chapter. Explants from seedling were most frequently used for culture initiation. Differences between particular organs of a few-day-old seedling are significantly different in the presence of MS medium. Leaves from in vitro culture plants were used to describe their morphogenic potential and as a source of the protoplasts for somatic hybridization and transformation. The culture of floral explants helps to get interspecies hybrids and haploids with improving floriculture breeding programs. The shoot and root organogenesis and shoot multiplication play key role in the vegetative propagation of gentians. Embryogenic cultures on semi-solid and in liquid helped to undertake many subjects concerning somatic embryogenesis per se and exploration of embryogenic cell suspension for somatic cell genetic manipulation.