Micropropagation by tissue culture has the potential to be a valuable tool for native plant restoration research. Micropropagation techniques give researchers the ability to generate large amounts of uniform plant material in relatively short timeframes, minimizing the time and space required to propagate plants conventionally. Importantly, these techniques allow for the multiplication of genetically distinct clones which can be used to control for genetic identity in subsequent experiments. In the present study, we developed tissue culture protocols to investigate the efficacy of micropropagation techniques for the production of a number of restoration-relevant native forb species from the Colorado Plateau. We asked the following questions: 1) can Colorado Plateau native forbs be successfully cultivated using tissue culture techniques and 2) is micropropagation a feasible method of producing plant material for native plant restoration experiments? To answer these questions, we established micropropagation protocols for six forb species from three plant families, leveraging various concentrations of growth regulators, and evaluated propagation success from culture establishment to acclimatization in ex vitro conditions.
Results/Conclusions
Our study found that it is possible to successfully propagate Colorado Plateau native forb species using tissue culture techniques. All of our study species performed well on media containing no growth regulators, however, most species produced additional lateral shoots in the presence of low concentrations of cytokinins. High cytokinin concentrations resulted in abnormal growth and callus proliferation in most species. Root formation in culture occurred in all species without the addition of growth regulator. Preliminary data suggests that exposure to growth regulators is not necessary when transitioning plants out of culture. Mortality rates varied from 5%-60% after transitioning plants to soil media and being placed in a mist-house, with most species experiencing less than 15% mortality after two weeks. Our results demonstrate that micropropagation is a feasible method of quickly propagating uniform plant material in these species, even without the addition of growth regulators. The adoption of these techniques by researchers in ecological restoration could considerably reduce the time required to obtain plant material and the space required to propagate plants. Micropropagation opens up new avenues of research and helps scientists control for and purposefully manipulate genetic factors.