Cultivation of Apple-fruit Tissue in vitro

Abstract

THE in vitro culture of meristematic tissues derived from roots, tubers, stems, galls and tumours has received much attention, but little is known of the growth requirements of tissues of mature parenchymatous fruit walls (for a definition of the latter term, see ref. 10). The only two tissues of this type which appear to have been cultured are mature avocado pericarp¹ and mature citron mesocarp². In the former tissue active cell division is occurring, but it is unlikely that many cells of the latter tissue are dividing³. In the developing apple-fruit, cell-division is completed within 20 days after fertilization, and subsequent growth is due entirely to cell enlargement⁴. In this report the in vitro cultivation of tissue derived from apple-fruits both before and after cessation of cell division is described. This appears to be the first successful in vitro cultivation of a pome-fruit tissue.