Initial stages of Gymnadenia conopsea (Orchidaceae) morphogenesis in in vitro culture

Abstract

In the West Siberia there is very little data on the biology of cenopopulations of Gymnadenia conopsea. Habitat destruction and environmental changes, which potentially affected species long-term viability, led to G. conopsea cenopopulations fragmentation and isolation. A detailed study of the morphology variability of the Fragrant orchid representatives was carried out in the cenopopulation in Novosibirsk region. Our results indicate that asymbiotic germination of G. conopsea seeds is difficult to achieve and the species has serious conservation issues. It is the first report when the introduction of G. conopsea in tissue culture was undertaken as the initial stage of germplasm conservation of Siberian cenopopulation. Three modified nutrient media with different growth additives were tested to promote protocorm and seedling formation. The advanced G. conopsea seedlings establishment was obtained in 1/3 Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium, supplemented by 1.0 mgl−1 2-isopentenyladenine (2iP), 0.1 mgl−1 1-Naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 10% coconut water. This study allowed establishing a reliable and reproducible system for the G. conopsea maintenance and conservation ex situ.