Germination and In-Vitro Regeneration in ‘Egusi’ Melon, Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. and Nakai

Abstract

This study was carried out in order to determine the germination and in-vitro regeneration of five accessions of “egusi’ melon. Seeds from de-coated melon were used for germination and in-vitro regeneration was carried out on excised pregerminated cotyledons in MS medium (4.43g of MS, 30g of sucrose, water of pH 5.8, 1M NaOH and 3.5g Gelzan). The highest germination percentages after five days were observed for the accessions DD98/4 and A22. Regenerated cotyledon explants 14 days after plating in MS medium showed accession A22 producing the highest regeneration frequency. The study revealed that DD98/4 and A22 had the highest germination and best regeneration frequency in the Murashige and Skooge (MS) medium, thus making them useful materials for genetic transformation.

Keywords: Regeneration, ‘egusi’ melon, cotyledon

Nig J. Biotech. Vol. 24 (2012) 35-40