ORGANOGENESIS AND PLANT-REGENERATION FROM IMMATURE EMBRYOS OF ROSA-HYBRIDA L

Intact, flowering, rose plants have been regenerated in vitro from excised embryos of crosses between 'Bridal Pink' (the maternal parent) and several pollen parents. Explanted embryonic tissues developed into an organogenic callus which formed adventitious shoots after several months only on a modified half-strength Murashige & Skoog medium containing 1.0 μM BA and 0.05 μM NAA. These shoots could be separated, grown individually, rooted in a medium with no BA or NAA, with 1.0 μM IBA, and transplanted to greenhouse media. Embryos ranging in age from 21 to 35 days post-pollination formed organogenic callus that eventually regenerated adventitious shoots. Histological examination of normally-developing embryos showed that well-defined embryonic axes were beginning to develop at approximately 20-25 days postpollination. Analysis of populations of regenerated plants from different crosses showed differences in flower color, growth habit, peduncle length, and petal number. This system may be useful for irradiation-mutation breeding and/or for the development of transgenic rose plants using Agrobacterium tumefaciens. © 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers.