In Vitro Embryo Culture of Some Sweet Cherry Genotypes

Abstract Due to a very low germination percentage of some sweet cherry's hybrids seeds in the breeding process, a new research using embryo rescue method was started. The goal of this work was to establish an efficient propagation protocol using the embryo culture in vitro. The sweet cherry seeds comes from eight hybrid genotypes as follows: 13.3.M (Giant Red x Early Red), 13.4.M (Giant Red x New Star), 13.8.M (New Star x Kordia), 13.9.M (New Star x Van), 13.11.M (New Star x Burlat), 13.12.M (New Star x Early Red), 13.18.M (Van x New Star), 13.19.M (Van x Early Red). The biological material was sterilised using alcohol 96% (w/v) and Ca(OCl) 2 in different concentrations. Four culture mediums with macro and microelements were tested (based on Lee & Fossard and Murashige & Skoog) reacting differently according to the genotype. The LF medium (V1) offers superior nutrition for biological material in terms of macro and microelements and vitamins, comparing to V3 culture medium, constituted as MS medium. The germination period in vitro conditions indicate V1 medium with the lowest infection rate 26.3%. The most vigorous plants obtained in vitro were registered on LF medium.