Investigation on salt tolerance and chromosomal variation in cell culture of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.)

Effects of culture medium containing hormonal compositions on phenotypic and chromosomal variations of sugarbeet cultured tissues were examined. Experiments were carried out in different NaCl levels. Cytological studies were conducted on calli originated from suspension culture. Hypocotyl of seven day old seedlings of the two diploid lines were cultured in MS medium containing hormonal compositions to produce callus. In the next step, cell aggregates and callus fragments were incubated onto PGoB media supplemented with different salt concentrations (0-300 milimolar NaCl) and their growth was investigated. The results showed that multigerm line derived-callus had obviously more tolerance to the different NaCl concentrations than monogerm line derived-callus; so that 15 and 75 percent of monogerm and multigerm line calli grew, respectively, after being transfered from control medium to the medium containing 200 mM NaCl. Callus fragments of multigerm line had desirable growth after being transfered to the medium containing 100 mM NaCl. Also, variation was seen among callus fragments in each treatment. In another experiment, somaclonal variation was studied at chromosomal level in callus cells obtained from suspension culture in which polyploidy and aneuploidy were observed in some cells. Therefore, it is noteworthy to characterize and control somaclonal variation in cell culture of sugar beet in the desired direction for selection of salt tolerant lines.