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Updated: Feb 26, 2026
Semi-High Throughput Screening for Potential Drought-tolerance in Lettuce Lactuca sativa Germplasm Collections
Published on: April 17, 2015
A rapid and efficient in vitro regeneration system for lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.)
Isabel Armas1, Natalia Pogrebnyak1, Ilya Raskin1
1Department of Plant Biology, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 USA.
Background:
Successful biotechnological improvement of crop plants requires a reliable and efficient in vitro regeneration system. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), one the most important vegetable crops worldwide, is strongly genotype-dependent in terms of regeneration capacity, limiting the potential for biotechnological improvement of cultivars which show recalcitrance under currently available protocols. The effect of different nutrient sources, plant hormone combinations and activated charcoal supplementation on shoot induction efficiency was evaluated on the cultivar 'RSL NFR', which had previously shown poor regeneration efficiency.
Results:
Multiple shoot organogenesis from cotyledon explants was recorded at the highest frequency and speed on Murashige and Skoog regeneration medium supplemented with 200 mg/l of activated charcoal, 3% sucrose, 10 mg/l benzylaminopurine and 0.5 mg/l naphthaleneacetic acid, which induced shoots through direct regeneration in 90.8 ± 7.9% of explants. High shoot induction efficiency was also observed, albeit not quantified, when using this medium on some other cultivars.
Conclusions:
This activated charcoal-containing regeneration medium might offer a rapid and efficient option for direct shoot induction in some lettuce genotypes that do not respond well to common lettuce regeneration protocols. This is also the first report of the effect of activated charcoal in lettuce tissue culture.
