ASEPTIC GERMINATION AND MICROPROPAGATION OF STEMMACANTHA SERRATULOIDES (GEORGI) M. DITTRICH

Stemmacantha serratuloides (Georgi) M. Dittrich is a perennial herbaceous medicinal plant, a source of a number of phytoecdysteroids with adaptogenic, anabolic and tonic effects. Due to the rarity of this plant species and the strong dependence of its seed productivity on weather conditions, the relevance of research aimed at its biotechnological cultivation and reproduction is high. The aim of this study was to introduce S. serratuloides plants from the Cis-Ural population of the Republic of Bashkortostan into in vitro culture and to develop an effective protocol for micropropagation of this species. It was shown that an effective method of preparing seeds for in vitro culture is their successive sterilization with 96% ethanol (1 min) and 20% bleach (20 min), as well as me- chanical scarification, without a preliminary stratification step. When using 1 mg/l of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and 1.5 mg/l of 6-benzylaminopurine on Murashige-Skoog medium, no regeneration of shoots on explants of cotyledons and hypocotyls occurred. Shoot regeneration was induced from root explants using Murashige-Skoog medium supplemented with 6-benzylaminopurine and indoleacetic acid at concentrations of 1 mg/l and 1.5 mg/l, respectively. Rooting of shoots was carried out on MS medium containing 0.25 mg/L IAA. This micropropagation technology can be used for rapid propagation of plants for various biotechnological purposes, for example, for further transformation by Agrobacterium rhizogenes and creating of hairy root cultures.