Indirect regeneration of Acer monospessulanum by in vitro techniques

Acer monospessulanum is an important species of the genus Acer from Aceraceae family. Turcamanicum subspecies spreads in Irano-Turanian region as associated plant of juniper forests in highlands of Razavi Khorasan province and northern part of the province. Its mast year is every three years, germination rate of seeds and number of healthy matured seeds is low. Also, the seeds have dormancy period and their germination percentage is decreased after chilling periods. Unfortunately, most of the species habitats are under intense grazing and human intervention effects, so that the species has been encountered with severe destruction. Due to sexual reproduction problems, application of vegetative propagation methods could be advantageous in high quality seedling production and reclamation of the habitats. One of seedling production methods is propagation using in vitro techniques. For this purpose, explants were collected from their natural habitats, and their regeneration was assessed in different hormonal treatments. Embryogenesis percentage in different hormonal treatments was investigated. Applying different hormonal treatments, callus regeneration was observed only in 0.1 and 0.5 mg/l of TDZ hormone concentration. Shoot number, shoot growth and shoot vigority were affected by different concentrations of TDZ hormones. MS media supplemented by 0.5 mg/l TDZ had the highest shoot production. But vigority and shoot length were not significantly different by utilizing different hormonal treatments. Finally, MS basal media and TDZ hormone are suitable for regeneration from callus in the valuable tree species.