Monosaccharides and chitosan sensing in bud growth and petal pigmentation in Eustoma grandiflorum (Raf.) Shinn.

This study focused on the application of chitosan and monosaccharide to lisianthus cultivars in vitro. Buds from three cultivars, 'Asuka no Asa', 'Mickey Rose', and 'Royal Violet', were kept in a holding solution containing different sugars, with or without chitosan. The cultivars showed distinct variations in flower bud development on treatment with chitosan. Following treatment with fructose and chitosan, a vivid petal color was produced in all the cultivars. Chitosan promoted various processes in developing flower buds, including the accumulation of anthocyanin in petals in vitro. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was used to simulate the measured and estimated values for the total amount of anthocyanins in lisianthus petals. The simulation could explain about 90% of the observed relationship between the input variations and relative anthocyanin synthesis in lisianthus flowers. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.