Philippine E-Journals

Stomatal and Morphological Characteristics of In-Vitro Grown Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Treated with Different Concentrations of Colchicine and Pendimethalin

Jessa R. Gines | Catherine C. Arradaza | Marilyn M. Belarmino | Marilou M. Benitez | Rosemarie B. Gonzaga

Discipline: molecular biology, biophysics and biochemistry

 

Abstract:

This research investigated the stomatal and morphological response of in vitro grown tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plantlets to different concentrations of colchicine and pendimethalin. The effects of treat-ments on stomatal parameters, chlorophyll content and morphological characteristics were studied. The study was conducted using a Com-pletely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven treatments replicated three times with ten samples per replicate at the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory, Department of Horticulture, Visayas State University. To evaluate the responses of various concentrations of colchicine (1.5, 3.0 and 5.0 mM) and pendimethalin (10, 20 and 30 uM), induced polyploid-associated traits and overall plant growth and development rate on to-mato plantlets have also been compared with normal diploid plantlet used as control in subsequent measurement. The results indicated that the mutagen treatments have a substantial effect on explant viability, stomatal traits and chlorophyll content as well as vegetative growth of tomato plants. Moderate concentrations had more profound effect with higher survival percentages of explants found for 20 uM pendimethalin (91%) and 5.0 mM colchicine (84%), which produced regeneration and adaptation, as compared to other concentrations in this study. It was found out with an increased stomatal length, width and aperture on mu-tation treated plantlets but decreased stomatal density shows induction of polyploid trait. Colchicine resulted in the greatest stomatal size to-gether with favourable impact on chlorophyll content. In contrast, at the highest concentrations of pendimethalin (30 uM), growth was in-hibited and chlorophyll was decreased as a result of phytotoxicity. Col-chicine and pendimethalin in moderate concentrations exerted a favorable response on stomatal and morphological arrangements, traits associated with polyploidy can enhance the vegetative vigor.