Szilárd Tóth

The role of nitrogen and phosphorous source in Miscanthus in vitro cultures.

The large biomass production and the low necessary input fertilizer make Miscanthus an interesting, potential non-food crops with broad applications, e.g. for fuel and energy, for thatching, fibre production, for the paper and car industries, as well as for ethanol production.Axillary buds of Miscanthus x giganteus were placed on a shoot inducing nutrient solution (modified Murashige and Skoog, 1962) basic medium supplemented with 0,3 mg l −1 6-Benzylaminopurin). After 40 days of culturing the axillary buds produced three times more shoots than could normally be harvested. The nutrient content (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) was measured several times during culturing. The results showed that after 35 days, nitrogen and phosphorous was nearly completely taken up. From that time, shoot growth was not observed.After the shoot propagation the plants were transferred into a nutrient solution for root formation basic medium (modified Murashige and Skoog, 1962) supplemented with 0,5 mg l −1 IBA (Indol-3-Butyric Acid), and co...

Nutrient Uptake of Miscanthus In Vitro Cultures

Abstract The large biomass production and the low input of fertilizer needed make Miscanthus an interesting potential non-food crop with broad applications, e.g., as fuel and energy, thatching, as fiber for production in the paper and car industry as well as ethanol production. Axillary buds of Miscanthus × giganteus were placed on a shoot inducing nutrient solution (modified Murashige and Skoog, 1962) basic medium supplemented with 0.3 mg l−1 6-Benzylaminopurin. After 40 days of culturing the axillary buds, three times more shoots could be harvested. The nutrient content (N, P, K, Ca, Mg) was determined several times during the culturing. The results showed that after 35 days, nitrogen and phosphate were almost completely taken up and thereafter no shoot growth was observed. After the shoot propagation the plants were transferred into a nutrient solution for root formation and could be potted in soil, after about 14 days.

Investigation of maize hybrids based on direct and reciprocal crosses

Introduction In maize selection, it is of great importance to know the performance and combining ability of crossing partners. It is also relevant in seed production and basic research to study differences between single and reciprocal crosses. A few Hungarian literature references draw attention to this field (Berzy et al., 2005). Kovacs (1963) investigated direct and reciprocal single crosses derived from Martonvasar lines and found no difference between the productivity of the two hybrids. Transposition of parents can be accounted by the fact that the cytoplasm of certain lines does not take part equally in the development of agronomical features. With the transposition of parents, more economical seed production can be obtained (Nagy, 1982). Nagy (1985) examined leaf number, ear height, ear length, cob weight, kernel line number, ear weight, kernel weight, 500 kernel weight, shelling % and oil content in 14 early SC hybrids and their reciprocal variety. In one quarter of compared data pairs, significant difference was found at P≥5%. Hegyi (2001) studied protein and oil contents of 12 direct and 12 reciprocal hybrids and found no heterosis coupled to parental average. In 10 cases there was significant difference in protein content, while no statistical difference was found in oil content between direct and reciprocal hybrids. Plant height and height of main ear were examined by several authors (Gyenesne Hegyi et al., 2002, 2005a, b; Zsubori et al., 2001) and they concluded that one of the most important phenomena was the close relation of trait pairs to other characteristics. Khehra and Bhalla (1976) crossed 10 genetically different maize lines among them reciprocals. They observed larger difference in point of reciprocal effect in early x late variety combinations rather than in early x early or late x late ones. According to Pollmer et al. (1978) it is hard to utilize the commercial value due to instability and low magnitude of reciprocal differences, however in their studies they showed difference in almost all traits. This information is important during the prediction of breeding basic material. We can obtain a few data from the literature about tassel characteristics in direct and reciprocal crosses.

Significance of Different Carbon Sources on Shoot Development of Miscanthus Genotypes

Abstract Different carbon sources in the media have an important role on the plant regeneration and induction of different Miscanthus genotypes. On the basis of our results we can estimate the effect of carbon sources on the shoot development of Miscanthus. We have measured the weight of shoots during a particular period of time. In case of disaccharide application we obtained the best results and it can be used more efficiently for optimizing the in vitro propagation system than the monosaccharides. In our experiment we found that shoot development had a strong dependence on genotypes.