In vitro flowering of Bambusa edulis and subsequent plantlet survival

Bamboo shoots could be induced to flower in vitro, but there is very little information on the effect of growth components on flowering. In this study, multiple shoots grown from in vitro, spikelet-derived, somatic embryos of Bambusa edulis were used for in vitro flowering. Multiple shoots flowered on Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) with 0.5 muM thidiazuron (TDZ) and 30 g l(-1) sucrose. Different plant growth regulators were added to the medium to assess their effects on in vitro flowering. Multiple shoots could be induced to flower in the presence of cytokinins. Meanwhile, naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) was a negative regulator for cytokinin-dependent in vitro flowering. Multiple shoots rooted on MS medium supplemented with auxin alone, but had no effect on the flowering ratio. These rooted multiple shoots were used to study survival after in vitro flowering. Rooted plantlets with vegetative shoots, even though they had flowers, could survive and grow well as normal plants without hardening. This study presents a novel view on bamboo flowering and survival.