Plant tissue culture is an efficient technique for conserving endemic plant species. A reproducible in vitro regeneration protocol was developed for the endemic Iris sari and Iris schachtii in the present study. | Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry Research Article Turk J Agric For (2014) 38: 348-353 © TÜBİTAK doi: Efficient in vitro plant regeneration from immature embryos of endemic Iris sari and I. schachtii 1, 2 3 4 4 Satı UZUN *, Ali İrfan İLBAŞ , Arif İPEK , Neşet ARSLAN , Surendra BARPETE Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Erciyes University, Kayseri, Turkey 2 Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyrgyzstan-Turkey Manas University, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan 3 Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Çankırı Karatekin University, Çankırı, Turkey 4 Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey 1 Received: Accepted: Published Online: Printed: Abstract: Plant tissue culture is an efficient technique for conserving endemic plant species. A reproducible in vitro regeneration protocol was developed for the endemic Iris sari and Iris schachtii in the present study. The highest number of shoots per explant was obtained on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with mg/L thidiazuron (TDZ) plus mg/L α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 1 mg/L TDZ plus mg/L NAA, whereby and 100% shoot induction with and shoots per explant of Iris sari and Iris schachtii were recorded, respectively. Regenerated shoots were successfully rooted on MS medium with either 1 mg/L indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or 1 mg/L IBA plus mg/L NAA. Rooted shoots were transferred to pots containing either a peat-soilsand (1:1:1) mixture or a hydroponic culture containing Hoagland solution to acclimatize the regenerated plants to the greenhouse chamber. Approximately 90% of plants were transferred ex vitro successfully. Key words: Endemic species, immature embryo, in vitro regeneration, Iris sari, Iris schachtii 1. Introduction Environmental pressures such as agriculture, erosion, overgrazing
