title: In vitro culture of pods from annual and perennial Medicago species.
abstract: Because most interspecific Medicago embryos abort before they can be excised and cultured, our objective was to grow young pods in vitro. Various media were used to grow three-day-old pods of annuals [diploids, M. blancheana Boiss., M. disciformis DC., tetraploid M. scutellata (L.) Mill.] and perennials (diploid M. falcata L., tetraploid M. sativa L.).Few pods of perennial species grew to maturity on media containing modified Hoagland's plus 1% glucose or sucrose with or without 5% potato extract. Increasing sucrose to 6% increased the percentage of M. sativa pods that produced mature seeds. On DM (differentiation medium), the best medium, the percentage of pods producing viable seeds was: M. blancheana (82), M. disciformis (81), M. scutellata (48), M. sativa (63), M. falcata (15). DM plus 1 ppm indoleacetic or gibberellic acid did not enhance seed production.
authors.affiliation: Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Agronomy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Kansas State University, 66506, Manhattan, KS, USA.
authors.forename: J W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Sorensen
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Liang