Regeneration of Plants from Protoplasts of Adsuki Bean (Phaseolus angularis Wight)

Abstract

Plant regeneration from protoplasts is a prerequisite in protoplast technology. In this respect, however, little information is available for grain legume plants. In the genus Phaseolus, which has sometimes been classified under the genus Vigna, belonging to the family Leguminosae, calli were obtained from protoplasts of Phaseolus aureus (Xu et al. 1981) and P. vulgaris (Pelcher et al. 1974). However, no plantlets have been regenerated from them. Later, plants were regenerated from protoplasts of Vigna acontifolia (Gill and Eapen 1986). Since 1984, on the basis of plantlet regeneration from explants of P. angularis, which is indigenous to China and which has been cultivated as an important feed crop for at least 2000 years, we proceeded to carry out experiments in our laboratory, with protoplast cultures from sterilized leaves of this plant, and obtained vigorous calli and induced plantlet regeneration.