Summary
Tissue cultures on properly solidified Gelrite media generally showed superior shoot proliferation and rooting, as well as shoot and root vigor and callus development to those on TC agar. Vitrification, or hyperhydricity, was observed in both Gelrite and agar media and minimized by increasing the gel concentrations. Rigidity of Gelrite media depended on combined levels of MS macrosalts, basal nutrient formulations, sucrose concentration, pH, and Gelrite concentration. Most MS macrosalts increased hardness of Gelrite gels; NH4NO3 had a decreasing effect. Rigidity of TC agar gels increased with reductions of MS macrosalts. A slightly softer Gelrite medium resulted when sucrose was excluded. Both Gelrite and agar media were softer at lower pHs and harder at higher pHs. Activated charcoal and mannitol increased gel hardness, and more noticeably of agar gels. NaCl addenda reduced rigidity, with their effects being more pronounced on Gelrite than on agar gels.
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Gelrite is a trademark of Kelco Division of Merck & Co. (San Diego, CA), manufacturer of the gellan gum. Phytagel is a trademark of Sigma Chemical Co. (St. Louis, MO) for repackaged Gelrite. TC agar used for comparisons in this investigation is plant tissue culture tested agar obtained from JRH Biosciences (Lenexa, KS).
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Huang, LC., Kohashi, C., Vangundy, R. et al. Effects of common components on hardness of culture media prepared with gelrite™. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol - Plant 31, 84–89 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632242
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02632242