Establishment of Cathay Poplar in Vitro Regeneration System

摘要

Poplar trees are used as timber, pulp of paper, packing material, fuel , and furnitures because of their short-rotation and rapid growth. Many new poplar clones have been developed in the world . One of the local species, the Cathay Poplar (Populus cathayana) , distributed mainly in the 1000 -500 m river valley area of the upper andrnmiddle reaches of the Yellow River Basin of our country, shows high adaptability and resistance . Especially, the green skin of Populus cathayana with rapid growth and of high-quality is beautiful, which was used as avenue tree in city and country. However, the Cathay Poplar is difficult to grow in soline-alkali soil and hard to resist insect pest , which need genetic improvement. Further more, vegetative propagation by grafting is possible but not practical for large-scale clonal propagation. Tissue culture technology offers opportunities not only for the mass propagation throughout the year, but also for the genetic improvement of the species. In this paper, the development of tissue culture system of Cathay Poplar is firstly presented.