biologia plantarum

Biologia plantarum 49:121-124, 2005 | DOI: 10.1007/s00000-005-1124-z

Nickel hyperaccumulation in shoot cultures of Alyssum markgrafii

B. Vinterhalter^1,*, D. Vinterhalter²

¹ Plant Physiology Department, Institute for Biological Research "Siniša Stanković", Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro

² Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Shoot cultures of Alyssum markgrafii O.E. Shulz, endemic nickel hyperaccumulating species of central Balkan, were established and maintained on Murashige and Skoog medium supplemented with 0.2 mg dm^-3 benzyladenine (BA). Nickel in form of NiCl₂ . 6 H₂O was supplemented at 22 different concentrations ranging from 0.0001 to 15 mM but none of them was lethal to cultures. High Ni²⁺ concentrations (10 mM or more) arrested shoot growth which, upon transfer to Ni-free medium, commenced via axillary bud proliferation. Shoots that developed from axillary buds through the subculture manifested increased tolerance to Ni²⁺ expressed as shoot elongation. Shoot multiplication and dry biomass production decreased with increase of Ni²⁺ in medium. Only the accumulation of Ni²⁺ in tissues increased with Ni²⁺ content of the medium. Apart from shoot cultures, high Ni²⁺ accumulation was registered in undifferentiated callus cultured on medium with 0.5 mg dm^-3 BA and 0.5 mg dm^-3 naphthylacetic acid. Highest content of accumulated Ni was 2.37 μg g^-1 (d.m.) in shoots and 2.65 μg g^-1 (d.m.) in callus, both measured on medium with 15 mM Ni²⁺.

Keywords: callus; in vitro culture; shoot cultures

Subjects: auxins; bud; cytokinins; hyperaccumulation, nickel; in vitro culture, axillary buds proliferation, bud breaking and regeneration; in vitro culture, callus induction; in vitro culture, regeneration, organogenesis, morphogenesis; nickel hyperaccumulation, in vitro culture; nutrient medium MS (Murashige and Skoog)

Received: July 18, 2003; Accepted: June 7, 2004; Published: March 1, 2005  Show citation