Culture in vitro and plant regeneration from petals of flower color chimera in chrysanthemum

A research work was conducted to evaluate the effects of 6-BA in combination with NAA on in vitro propagation of chrysanthemum Fenzhuang'petal explants to establish the regeneration system of chrysanthemum petals, and to investigate the flower color variation in plants regenerated from petals of flower color chimera. MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/ L6-BA +1.0 mg/ LNAA was found to be optimum combination concentration for shoot bud regeneration. The differentiation rate of regenerating buds was 93.3%, and average number of 10 regenerating buds per explant was observed at above combination concentration. The rooting rate and transplanting survival rate was 100.0% recorded on 1/2 MS medium. Extensive color variation in flower color was observed in petal explants regenerated plants. The regenerated plant (grown from pink petals) flower color ranged from white to yellow with the highest rate of pink color flowering plants, but there was no flower color chimera. More flower color variation from white to salmon, with highest rate of parental plants flower color was observed in plants regenerated from petals of flower color chimera. It was found that some plants can keep flower color chimerism, but only the chimeric colors of white and pink with 4% of chimeric color formation rate were achieved. Thus, tissue culture method can partly keep chimeric color for chrysanthemum Fenzhuang'.