Dr Buhara Yücessan, from Abant Izzet Baysal University, Turkey, was awarded for his recent studies about an efficient in vitro regeneration system and synthetic seed production in stevia.
According Dr Yücesan: "An efficient in vitro regeneration system was established in Stevia within 8 wk. Nodal explants excised from mature seedlings were surface disinfected, and placed into Murashige and Skoog medium containing different concentrations of IAA, NAA or BA. [...] Although the success of survival rate was reported as low values (60–70%) in earlier reports, our team obtained high survival rate in our regeneration system (90%). [...]
In this study, we established, for the first time, a promising technique for multiplication, conservation and storage in Stevia, however, further experiments should be taken into consideration for our understanding towards the influence of different growth regulators, characteristics genetic make-up of plant material and comparative steviosid glycoside analysis of in vitro produced plantlets and mother plants after harvesting.