Production of Cell Suspensions from Oriental Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) Cultivars for Cell Line Development

Cell suspension culture is a suspension of rapidly growing and dividing cells which are cultured in liquid medium. The dividing capability of the cells in a suspension culture is much higher than that of calli. This potential has therefore been exploited for different purposes such as developing cell lines, producing secondary metabolites, investigating cell cycle phases, increasing gene transformation efficiency and studying biotic and abiotic stresses. In this study, callus was produced from nine oriental tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) cultivars in MS medium containing NAA 1 mg.l-1 and Kinetin 1 mg.l-1. Then, callus growth rate and quality were examined in different media. The best growth rate and quality were achieved for the cultivars of OR-209, OR-205 and PDB 328 using LS medium treated by hormones 3 mg.l-1 IAA, 3 mg.l-1 NAA and 0.1 mg.l-1Kinetin. The effects of different culture media and hormone compositions were then assessed on cell suspension. The best growth was acquired for OR-209 cultivar in liquid LS medium having the same hormone composition. Consequently, the growth rate of the developed cell suspension was compared with that of the TBY-2 cell line, revealing the high similarity. This result indicates the high potential of oriental tobacco cultivars as promising progenitors for the production of cell lines and their exploitation for research and applied purposes.