Plant regeneration from leaves of sweet and sour cherry cultivars

Leaves excised from shoot cultures of sweet cherry ( Prunus avium L.) cv. ‘Burlat’, ‘Hedelfinger’, ‘Napoleon’ and ‘Schneiders’ and sour cherry ( Prunus cerasus L.) cv. ‘Beutal Spacher Rexelle’ and ‘Morellenfeuer’ developed shoots on Lloyd and McCown woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with 2 mg l −1 benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.5–1 mg l −1 α-naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). After cutting the leaves into three segments perpendicular to the midrib and culturing under equivalent conditions, regeneration occurred more frequently in basal segments than middle or apex segments. BAP was more effective than thidiazuron (TDZ) in regenerating shoots and the proportions of leaves that regenerated varied depending on the concentrations of BAP used. WPM medium stimulated caulogenesis more than did Murashige and Skoog medium (MS), Quoirin and Lepoivre medium (QL) or Driver and Kuniyuki medium (DKW) when supplemented with the same plant growth regulators of 2 mg l −1 BAP and 1 mg l −1 NAA. Regenerated shoots of both sweet and sour cherries were rooted on half MS medium containing 2 mg l −1 indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or NAA with or without a 7-day initial darkness treatment and plants were acclimatized to a greenhouse. This is the first report for P. cerasus and the second for P. avium on plant regeneration from leaves of scion cultivars.