EVALUATION OF THE GENETIC STABILITY OF PLANTS OBTAINED VIA SOMATIC EMBRYOGENESIS IN Chrysanthemum × grandiflorum (Ramat./Kitam.)

Genetic and phenotypic stability of plants obtained via somatic embryogenesis may be disrupted. The reason can be an indirect regeneration of somatic embryos via cal- lus or a high concentration of growth regulators added at the induction stage of somatic embryos. Somatic embryogenesis of 'Lady Salmon' (chimeric) and 'Lady Vitroflora' (non-chimeric) cultivars was induced on modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) media, supplemented with 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and kinetin (KIN) or 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP). Flow cytometry (FCM) revealed that the plants derived from somatic embryos of both cultivars maintained the ploidy of control plants obtained from the meristem. The colour and pigment content of the inflorescence of plants derived from somatic embryos of 'Lady Vitroflora' were similar to the original control plants. However, the ray florets of clones of 'Lady Salmon' did not contain carotenoids, charac- teristic for this cultivar, and consequently produced flowers of different colours. Thus, somatic embryogenesis in chrysanthemums can be applied for separating periclinal chi- mera components for chimeric cultivars and for receiving an additional source of variation in the breeding of cultivars. In the case of genetically homogeneous cultivars it can be used in production laboratories for cloning plants in vitro via somatic embryogenesis.