Selection of Salt Tolerant Cell Lines From Cell Suspension Cultures of alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

Plant breeding improvement and using conventional methods isdifficult and relatively time consuming. Biotechnological methods, especially tissue culture and cell suspension culture can be used to transfer desirable traits such as salt resistance to forage plants such as Medicago. Stem, leaf and root explants belonging to three Medicago species: rigidula, scutellata and sativa, were initially cultured on MS (Murashige and Skoog, 1962) medium containing 2 mg/L yeast extract, 2mg/L 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 2 mg/L a-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA), 1.5 mg/L benzyladenine (BA), 0.5 mg/L Thiodizuron (TDZ) and 2 mg/L Kinetin. Only M. sativa produced callus and was able to produce cell suspension in liquid medium. Viable cells were then transferred to the same liquid medium with 0, 30, 60, 90, 120 mM NaCl and finally, tolerant cell lines were selected at 90 mM NaCl according to packed cell volume (PCV