Clonal propagation of Paulownia tomentosa Steud. by in vitro tissue culture techniques

Paulownia species belonging to Scrophulariaceae family have just been introduced to our country. These species are being grown for use in paper industry, animal food, green fertiliser, honey and wood production and agricultural forestry. P. tomentosa is widely grown in Europe and North America since it is resistant to -25°C winter frost and could grown up to 1 800 m. from the sea level. It is difficult and time consuming to propagate P. tomentosa through cuttings and by seeds, however they could respond to in vitro tissue culture techniques. In this study, the experiments have been setted up to investigate the clonal propagation of P. tomentosa through the in vitro tissue culture techniques by using in vivo and in vitro grown plants. The aim was to determine the effect of different auxin and cytokinin combinations on clonal propagation of P. tomentosa. As a result of this study, Murashige and Skoog (1962) - MS media containing 0.1 mg/1 IAA + 3.0 mg/1 BAP resulted an average of 10.5 shoots per stem explant through direct somatic embriyogenesis. The shoots were best rooted on MS media with 2.0 mg/1 IAA +1.0 mg/1 NAA. The seedlings were then adapted to soil. Results obtained are important for to in vitro clonal propagation of P. tomentosa. Key words: Paulownia tomentosa, plant tissue culture, clonal propagation