The effects of calcium and magnesium on carrot (Dacus carrota cv. Nants) petiole somatic embryogenesis

The present study was conducted in two different experiments based on complete randomized design to evaluate the effects of calcium (0, 1, 2, 4 mM) and magnesium (0, 1.02., 2.04, 4.08 mM) on carrot petiole somatic embryogenesis in B5 medium. A difference on somatic embryogenesis was observed among different levels of calcium and magnesium. The number of globular embryos in medium with low magnesium (0, 1.02 mM) was significantly low. The number of cotyledonary or plantlet embryos in medium containing 4.08 mM magnesium was significantly higher than those of other levels of magnesium. The result indicated that magnesium and calcium plays important roles in carrot embryogenesis. Generally it can be concluded that the presence of both calcium and magnesium in both induction and realization stages of carrot petiole embryogenesis is necessary.