Tissue culture parameters in sweet orange cultivars

The objective of this work was to establish tissue culture parameters for gene transfer in sweet orange cultivars. Epicotyl explants with different ages were cultured with 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), kanamycin and hygromycin. Shoots were cultured with alpha-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) alone or in combination with indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). The requirement of BAP for shoot development was genotype-specifi c. Epicotyl explants from 35-day-old seedlings produced signifi cantly more shoots per explant in 'Pêra'. Kanamycin inhibited shoot regeneration for the most cultivars. The percentage of shoots that produced roots in 'Pêra' was signifi cantly higher in medium with NAA and IBA than with NAA alone.