Ontogeny of shoot regenerants on excised immature peach embryos
Excised immature peach embryos when cultured on an auxin-containing medium produced both a friable callus and a nodular callus. Upon further subculturing on an auxin-reduced medium only the nodular callus differentiated into highly regenerative nodular callus. This callus comprised dense meristematic cells which arose near or at the surface of the nodular tissue. Cells containing starch granules often surrounded these meristemoid areas. Shoots could be induced to form on shoot-inducing medium from the meristemoid areas. Vascular connections developed between the parental material and the shoot. The friable callus never appeared to differentiate into a nodular callus on either friable callus or nodular callus medium, nor were plantlets derived from this tissue on shoot-inducing medium. No stages of somatic embryogenesis were ever apparent. The evidence supports the view that the regenerative shoots were derived from indirect organogenesis on nodular callus derived from the embryonic tissue.Key words: Organogenesis, Prunus persica (L.) Batsch, shoot formation