Callus production and organogenesis in pot calla lily (Zantedeschia spp. cv. Orania)

Calla lily (Zantedeschia spp.) is one of the monocotyledonous ornamental plants that is famous as pot plant and cut flower in the world. In the present study, in order to investigate indirect regeneration, different explants of calla lily cv. Orania were used in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). In order to produce callus, explants of tuber buds, meristem, shoot-tip from tissue cultured plantlets and thin cell layer of stem were cultured on MS medium with different concentrations of BAP and NAA as treatment combination. Afterwards, the effect of using amino acid L-glutamine and adenine sulfate on increasing the shoot induction percentage was investigated. The highest percentage of callus formation (73.3%) was obtained from meristem explant on the MS medium containing 1 mg L-1 BAP along with 1.5 mg L-1 NAA. Due to the good quality of calli induced from the meristem explants, this explant was transferred to MS medium containing BAP, adenine sulfate and L-glutamine for regeneration. Highest regeneration percentage (78.3%), highest average number of shoots (13.4) and average shoot length (51.6 mm) were obtained on the media containing 1 mg L-1 BAP with 20 mg L-1 adenine sulfate and 300 mg L-1 L-Glutamine. Considering that calla lily is a recalcitrant plant in tissue culture, adding 500 mg L-1 activated charcoal to the rooting medium containing 0.25 and 0.5 mg L-1 IAA increased both rooting percentage and number of roots per plantlet. Furthermore, using amino acid L-glutamine (300 mg L-1) and adenine sulfate (20 mg L-1) increased the quality and number of plantlets produced from regeneration. Regenerated plantlets with proper length were transferred to the MS medium containing 0.5 mg L-1 IAA with 500 mg L-1 activated charcoal as rooting medium with the highest percentage of root induction (88.3%). Rooted plants were adapted (more than 70%) successfully in the perlite and cocopeat mixture (1:1) under greenhouse condition.