Inhibiting Effect of Ammonium Ion in Protoplast Culture of Some Asteraceae Plants

Abstract

Protoplasts with high division activity were obtained reproducibly from mesophyll cells of axenic shoot culture of three wild species of Asteraceae, Artemisia vulgaris L., Chrysanthemum indicum L. and Ch. zawadskii Herbich, by means of a suitable combination of enzymes with a gentle pipetting treatment. Ammonium ion was found to inhibit cell division in the protoplast culture of these Asteraceae species but to accelerate it in the case of tobacco. The inhibiting effect of ammonium ion was drastic on the protoplast of Artemisia but moderate on that of Ch. indicum and Ch. zawadskii. The total concentration of the major inorganic elements had little effect on the division frequency of protoplasts in these species.