Effects of X-irradiation on adventitious bud regeneration from in vitro leaf explants of Rosa hybrida

The effectiveness of X-radiation on regeneration of adventitious buds on in vitro leaf explants of three Rosa hybrida L. genotypes was studied. In vitro leaflet explants of roses produced adventitious buds when cultured in the dark for 1 week on Murashige and Skoog (MS) induction medium containing 6.8 mu M thidiazuron (TDZ) + 0.49 mu M indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) and subsequently transferred to MS regeneration medium containing 2.2 mu M benzyladenine (BA) + 0.049 mu M IBA in the presence of reduced light, at 15 mu mol m(-2) s(-1) photosynthetically active radiation (PAR). Analysis of radiosensitivity by irradiating leaf explants with increasing doses of X-rays between 25 and 100 Gray (Gy) resulted in a decreasing rate of leaf explants regenerating buds from 47% to 0% respectively. The lethal dose for 50% of the regenerating explants (LD50) in all the three genotypes was estimated to be 25 Gy at a dose rate 2 Gy/s. For the main experiment, doses of 5 and 15 Gy were selected and variations were observed between genotypes. Clone RUI 317 had the highest rate of adventitious bud regeneration, with 83.6% (2.5 buds/explant) at 5 Gy and 64% (1.8 buds/explant) at 15 Gy, compared to 89% (3.4 buds/explant) with the untreated control. Significant differences in the percentage of bud regeneration of the three genotypes were only observed at 15 Gy in comparison to the control and the number of buds formed per regenerating explant varied between 1 to 4.