GROWTH OF SUSPENSION CULTURES OF SUGARCANE CELLS IN CHEMICALLY DEFINED MEDIA

A chemically defined medium is desirable for nutritional studies and is frequently necessary for biochemical investigations. Several defined media are available for use with tissue and cell cultures from dicotyledonous plants. A fully defined medium has now been developed for cell suspension cultures from sugarcane. Prior to this, the only medium successfully used for cell cultures of monocotyledonous plants was a modification of Straus' synthetic medium (used to grow cell suspensions of corn). Cell suspension cultures from sugarcane stalk parenchyma, originally established in complex media containing coconut milk or yeast extract, can be grown in this synthetic medium, which consists of inorganic salts, vitamins, sucrose, 2.4‐dicliloropheuoxyacetic acid, and a mixture of 13 amino acids. The most important of the amino acids are arginine aspartic acid, and glutamic acid. This simplified medium wilt aid in the investigation of the unusual and important role of arginine in sugar‐cane growth and metabolism. Copyright © 1969, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved