Research Information System
in: Somatic Embryogenesis in Ornamentals and Its Applications, Mujib, A., Editor, Springer Books From India, New Delhi, pp.155-167, 2015
The cyclamen is a member of the family Primulaceae and consists of 22 species, originated from the Mediterranean Basin. Due to inbreeding depression, abortive zygotic embryo formation, and varying ploidy levels, vegetative production is frequently selected as the preferred form of propagation by breeders. Somatic embryogenesis is a highly effective method to produce cyclamen plants vegetatively. Somatic embryo formation in cyclamen is affected by genotype, source of explant, medium content, plant growth regulators, and their concentrations and culture conditions. Somatic embryos can be multiplied efficiently by repetitive or secondary embryogenesis on MS without plant growth regulators. The obtained somatic embryos can be used to produce synthetic seeds for clonal plant propagation and to protect valuable or rare cyclamen genetic resources.
Mutation breeding is a useful method to improve crops. Heavy-ion beam irradiation in mutation breeding can be used to produce new varieties of cyclamen. However, ion beams have not been sufficiently characterized in terms of mutagens for plant. Cryopreservation is also becoming a very important way for long-term storage of plant genetic resources, and effective cryopreservation protocols have been developed for many of plant species. Cryopreservation requires a minimum of space and low level of maintenance. In this chapter, we discussed and reviewed the progress of in vitro research on cyclamen.