Influence of Polyamines on Red Beet (Beta vulgaris L. ssp. vulgaris) Gynogenesis

The influence of polyamines (PAs), putrescine (Put) and spermidine (Spd) on the efficiency of gynogenesis in ovule cultures of red beet (syn. beetroot) (Beta vulgaris L. vulgaris) cultivar "Czerwona Kula" and breeding accessions no. 3/2010 and no. 7/2008 was investigated. The effect of Put on the process of plant regeneration from gynogenetic embryos was studied. The response to the applied PAs was strongly dependent on the genotype. In "Czerwona Kula", an increase in the number of obtained embryos was achieved by using each of the two PAs in the B5 medium. The effect of Spd was stronger. Put added to the regeneration medium at the concentration of 0.5 mg L-1 increased the number of obtained plants. All shoots placed on the rooting medium supplemented with 160 mg L-1 Put formed roots. The distribution of ploidy and homozygosity of gynogenetic plants depended on the genotype. Of the tested genotypes, the highest number of haploid plants, 68%, was obtained in red beet "Czerwona Kula". The highest percentage of homozygotes, 69% for the glucose phosphate isomerase (GPI, E.C.5.3.1.9) isoenzyme and 100% for the aspartate aminotransferase (AAT, E.C.2.6.1.1) isoenzyme, was obtained in the population of gynogenetic plants of cultivar "Czerwona Kula".