Background : Korean ginseng require 3 - 4 years to produce mature seeds from their mother plants. Therfore, it takes over 20 years to genetic fixation by artificial crossing of 8 generation. Anther culture is a useful method for obtaining homozygotes in only one generation. However, there is not much research on ginseng yet. In this study, we investigated the callus induction of anther depending on the type and concentration of the plant growth regulators in Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer.
Methods and Results : Flower buds of P. ginseng were cold pretreated at 2 days before the anthers were plated on the induction medium. The flower buds were immersed in 70% ethanol for 30 sec min, washed two times with sterile distilled water, surface-sterilized in 2% sodium hypochlorite solution for 20 min, then rinsed five times with sterile distilled water. The anthers were placed on Petri dishes containting fifteen different concentrations and combinations of 2,4-D, NAA, BAP and KT. Callus induction was significantly influenced by the type and combination of plant growth regulators. The highest callus induction rate was observed in GR5 medium at 79.2%. The 2,4-D mediums had significantly higher callus induction than the NAA medium, and 2,4-D 1 ㎎/ℓ have a higher callus induction rate than the other concentrations. The increase of callus induction rate was not observed by the addition of cytokinin, but the callus induction rate was gradually decreased as the BAP concentration was increased. There was no difference in callus induction rate between BAP and KT.
Conclusion : The important factor for inducing callus of ginseng anther was the addition of 2,4-D, and no effect of cytokinin addition could be found.