In vitro selection and characterisation of a drought tolerant clone of Tagetes minuta

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1 Plant Science 159 (2000) In vitro selection and characterisation of a drought tolerant clone of Tagetes minuta M.A.-H. Mohamed a,b, P.J.C. Harris a, J. Henderson a, * a School of Natural and En ironmental Sciences, Co entry Uni ersity, Priory Street, Co entry, CV1 5FB, UK b Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Mania Uni ersity, El-Mania 61111, Egypt Received 5 July 1999; received in revised form 22 May 2000; accepted 7 July 2000 Abstract Aromatic Tagetes plants produce secondary products which have a biological activity against a wide range of micro-organisms, insects and nematodes. Tagetes oils are also used as pharmaceuticals and as flavour components in the food industry. This study aimed to use somaclonal variation to select drought tolerant plants of Tagetes. Cotyledons cultured on MS medium containing 3mgl 1 IAA and 10 mg l 1 BA (callus growth medium; CGM) with 60 mm mannitol died. Shoot clumps developed on CGM for 6 months and then subcultured onto CGM containing 80 mm mannitol also died. Four shoots were regenerated from 72 shoot clumps on 1 2 MS medium containing 0.5 mg l 1 IAA (shoot growth medium; SGM) after culturing on CGM without mannitol for 6 months and then on CGM with 60 mm mannitol for 3 months. Twelve shoots developed from 72 shoot clumps on SGM after culture for 9 months on CGM. Significant variations were observed in biomass amongst regenerated clones when cultured on medium containing mannitol. After growth in greenhouse conditions for 2 months, one clone developed from shoot clumps selected on medium with mannitol exhibited a significant tolerance in vitro in medium containing 90 mm mannitol; this medium completely inhibited growth of control plants. This clone had significantly higher proline content and soluble sugars than the non-stress-selected clone when cultured on medium containing 0 or 30 mm mannitol. When tested for drought tolerance (growth at 40% soil field capacity) in the greenhouse for 2 months, this clone showed a significant tolerance compared with other regenerated and control plants and revealed lower water potential, greater accumulated biomass and a higher relative growth rate Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Marigold; Water stress; Somaclonal variation; Regeneration 1. Introduction The importance of Tagetes minuta L. (Mexican marigold) (Asteracea) as a source of volatile oils and thiophenes as well as its practical uses have been reviewed [1 3]. Volatile oils of T. minuta have a biological activity against a wide range of microorganisms and insects. They are also used in perfumes and as flavour components in many food products. The plants have a suppressive effect on Abbre iations: BA, 6-benzyladenine; CGM, callus growth medium; FC, field capacity; IAA, indole-3-acetic acid; RGR, relative growth rate; SGM, shoot growth medium. * Corresponding author. Tel.: ; fax: address: janey.h@coventry.ac.uk (J. Henderson). free-living nematodes and have been used as an intercrop or in rotation to protect crops [4]. Water deficit is a major component of environmental stresses such as drought, salinity and low temperature, and 40 60% of the agricultural land around the world suffers from drought [5,6]. Breeding for water stress tolerance by traditional methods is a time consuming and inefficient procedure [7]. In vitro culture may be used to obtain drought-tolerant plants assuming that there is a correlation between cellular and in vivo plant responses [8]. This method is based on the induction of genetic variation among cells, tissues and/or organs in cultured and regenerated plants. Although there are genetic, biochemical and physiological constraints in obtaining stress-tolerant /00/$ - see front matter 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S (00)

2 214 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) plants through in vitro culture, Nobars [6] pointed out that this technique has been successfully used to produce stress-tolerant plants from several species. The accumulation of proline and soluble sugars as an osmotic tolerance mechanism has been widely observed in many species. Proline may provide osmoregulation and stabilisation of proteins and membrane during stress [9]. Soluble sugars, which accumulate in the vacuole, are a major organic solute, involved in osmotic adjustment when plants are exposed to drought [9]. Sucrose, mannitol or sorbitol were studied by Sabili et al. [10] as osmotic stress agents on in vitro-grown Chrysanthemum morifolium. Sucrose failed to elicit consistent osmotic stress symptoms and enhanced both shoots and root growth. The osmotic potential of the tissue paralleled the increase of mannitol or sorbitol concentrations on culture medium. The harmful effect of the osmotic stress agent occurred in both shoot proliferation and rooting stages. Sorghum bicolor was tested in vitro for drought stress by Dunca et al. [11]. Results showed that osmotic stress applied to in vitro cultures reduced regeneration ability. However, by screening the regenerated plants under field conditions they obtained stress-tolerant regenerates with higher yield under stress conditions than that of their parents. Regeneration of plants displaying an increased tolerance to environmental stress is an important goal for the biotechnological improvement of many plant species [6]. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to induce somaclonal variation in regenerated plants in order to select droughttolerant clones of T. minuta, which grows as a cash crop in some developing countries [2,3], using a rapid in vitro regeneration protocol [12]. 2. Materials and methods 2.1. General materials and methods Sterile seedlings and cotyledon-derived shoot clumps were obtained and maintained as reported previously [12]. Unless stated, 42 explants from each treatment were cultured in seven Phytatrays II (Sigma) with 100 ml medium. Shoot and root fresh and dry weights for plants developed in vitro were measured for 10 randomly selected plantlets after gently removing the medium from the roots. The fresh weights for individual shoots and roots were assessed immediately after blotting the plantlets on tissue, and the dry weights determined after drying to a constant weight in an oven at 80 C and cooling to room temperature in a desiccator. Plants were adapted to greenhouse conditions of C and 16-h photoperiod, as reported previously [12]. The significance of differences in shoot, leaf, stem, plant fresh and dry weights, proline and soluble sugars content and water potential were tested by Analysis of Variance using Minitab for Windows Version 10.5 computer programme Optimising mannitol concentration for osmotic stress This preliminary experiment was carried out to optimise mannitol concentrations which could then be used as a selective agent for osmotic stress. Shoot tips of 2-week-old sterile seedlings were cultured on 1 2-strength MS medium [13] containing 2% sucrose, 0.5 mg l 1 IAA (shoot growth medium; SGM) with 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 or 100 mm mannitol. After 4 weeks, the number of segments which developed plantlets and the fresh and dry weight of both shoots and roots were measured. In order to study the ability of cotyledon explants to regenerate shoots on medium containing mannitol, 40 cotyledons from 1-week-old sterile seedlings were cultured onto eight Petri dishes each with 25 ml MS medium containing 3% sucrose, 3 mg l 1 IAA, 10 mg l 1 BA (callus growth medium; CGM) with 0 or 60 mm mannitol. After 1 month, the developing shoot clumps were transferred onto SGM to enhance adventitious shoot growth Shoot regeneration from cotyledon explants on medium containing mannitol Cotyledons were cultured on CGM as stated previously. The developing shoot clumps were subcultured onto CGM six times at monthly intervals (Fig. 1, step 1). Following that, ca. 2-g pieces of shoot clumps were subcultured onto fresh medium containing 0, 60 or 80 mm mannitol for 3 months at monthly intervals (Fig. 1, step 2). Pieces of shoot clumps ca. 2 g, previously cultured on CGM and CGM with 60 mm mannitol

3 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) were subcultured onto SGM containing 0 or 60 mm mannitol, respectively. In this trial, 72 shoot clumps were cultured on 12 Phytatrays II for each treatment. Shoot clumps were subcultured twice onto a fresh medium at monthly intervals (Fig. 1, step 3). Developing shoots were micropropagated as separate clones by single node culture on SGM for 2 months (Fig. 1, step 4). Plants were hardened off under greenhouse conditions (Fig. 1, step 5). For control plants, seeds were sown in the greenhouse. After 2 months, shoot tips from each of 30 plants was excised. Segments were surfacesterilised with 10% sodium hypochlorite solution (BDH) with a few drops of Tween 20 for 30 min, followed by several washes with sterile distilled water. Nodes were cultured in SGM for 1 month before transferring to the greenhouse (Fig. 1, step 4) In itro screening of clones for drought stress After growing the clones for 2 months in the greenhouse, segments with the uppermost two identifiable nodes and the shoot tips were excised and surface-sterilized. Single-node segments were cultured on SGM with 0 or 60 mm mannitol and 500 mg l 1 carbenicillin, to eliminate bacterial contamination (Fig. 1, step 6). After 1 month the percentage of nodes that developed into plantlets was assessed and shoot and root fresh and dry weights were measured. The remaining plantlets that developed on medium without mannitol were returned to the greenhouse (Fig. 1, step 7). Clones were grown in the greenhouse for 2 months before retesting for osmotic stress in vitro. Two intermediate clones developed in non-stress conditions and two clones including a drought-tolerant clone and non-tolerant clone which developed from callus cultured on mannitol-containing medium were tested for osmotic stress in vitro. Control plants (Fig. 1, step 4) were tested in the same way as the clones. First and second uppermost nodes were surface-sterilised and cultured on SGM containing 500 mg l 1 carbenicillin and 0, 30, 60 or 90 mm mannitol (Fig. 1, step 8). After 1 month, shoot and root fresh and dry weights were assessed. The remaining plants grown on mannitol-free medium were micropropagated by shoot tips for 1 month and then transferred to the greenhouse Proline and soluble sugars determination Plants were grown in the greenhouse for 2 months then, first and second uppermost nodes of stress-selected clone, PM3, and non-stress-selected clone, P4, were cultured as in Section 2.4 on SGM containing 0 or 30 mm mannitol. After 1 month the new developing shoots were used to measure the proline content and soluble sugars. Samples of 1 g from each of 15 individual plantlets were used to measure proline content as described by Bates et al. [14]. For soluble sugars, 15 individual plantlets from of the each clones were dried at 80 C, and 0.1 g from each individual plantlet was used to measure soluble sugars following the method reported by Jermyn [15] In i o screening of clones for drought stress Fig. 1. Protocol designed to select drought-tolerant clones of T. minuta. CGM, callus growth medium=ms+3% sucrose+10 mg l 1 BA+3 mgl 1 IAA; SGM, shoot growth medium= 1 2 MS+2% sucrose+0.5 mg l 1 IAA. After 2 months of growth in the greenhouse, shoot tip segments of two clones, P4 selected on mannitol-free medium and PM3 selected on mannitol-containing medium, and control plants were cultured in vitro for a further month before being returned to the greenhouse. Two weeks later

4 216 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) Drought stressed plants were watered to 40% FC. After 2 months, plant heights were measured and then plants were cut at the soil surface. WP was measured for individual plants using 10-cm long shoot tips immediately after cutting. Individual leaf and stem fresh weights were assessed immediately and the dry weights were assessed after air drying for 2 weeks. The relative growth rates (RGR) for plant fresh and dry weights were calculated by the formula: RGR (g g 1 day 1 ) =log e W 2 log e W 1/T2 T1 where W represent weight and T indicates harvesting time [18]. Fig. 2. Effect of mannitol concentrations on shoot fresh (A) and dry (B) and root fresh (C) and dry (D) weights on plants developed from shoot tip segments of T. minuta after 1 month of culture. The bars show LSD for all pair comparisons at P=0.05. plants were transplanted into 12 cm diameter plastic pots filled with 650 g air-dried clay soil. One week later, 10 plants were randomly selected from each clone and control plants. Individual plant heights were assessed and water potential (WP) measured using the pressure-chamber technique [16]. Individual shoot fresh weights were assessed immediately. Shoot dry weights were measured after air drying for 2 weeks. Plants were arranged in a randomised block design with three blocks, each block with 18 plants from each clone and the control plants. Within each block, half of the plants of each type were well-watered to 100% field capacity (FC) and half exposed to drought conditions at 40% FC. Plants were watered every 3 days. Field capacity of the soil in pots was assessed before the treatment as reported by Tuomela [17]. Plants grown in soil with 40% FC were irrigated for the first time 6 days after starting water stress treatment. Before watering, three pots from each treatment in each block were randomly selected and weighed. The amount of water required to restore the soil to 100% FC was added to the non-stressed group. 3. Results 3.1. Optimising mannitol concentration for osmotic stress All segments cultured on medium with mannitol remained green, even those that did not show any further growth. Fig. 2 shows that mannitol had an affect on plantlets grown from cultured segments. On medium with 80 and 100 mm mannitol some segments developed only shoots that were too small to measure. Only 68, 45, and 33% of shoot tips cultured on medium containing 40, 60 and 80 mm mannitol, respectively, developed into plantlets. Plantlets developing on medium containing 60 mm mannitol had shoot fresh and dry weights of 53 and 52%, and root fresh and dry weights of 71 and 59%, respectively, of those of plantlets developed on mannitol-free medium. The equivalent values for plantlets grown on medium with 80 mm mannitol were 30, 38, 55 and 42%. All cotyledons cultured in CGM containing 60 mm mannitol became swollen and necrotic and did not survive. However, cotyledons cultured in CGM without mannitol increased in size after 1 week in culture and callus was initiated from the basal end before developing adventitious shoots. When 1-month-old shoot clumps were transferred from CGM to SGM for a month, an average of 20 shoots explant 1 was regenerated. Media with 60 and 80 mm mannitol were therefore used to apply osmotic stress in vitro and to assess the drought stress of micropropagated plants in vitro.

5 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) Shoot regeneration from cotyledon explants on medium containing mannitol After culture for 6 months on CGM without mannitol to encourage somaclonal variation, shoot clumps were transferred to CGM containing 0, 60 or 80 mm mannitol (Fig. 1, step 2). Two weeks after transfer of shoot clumps onto CGM containing 60 mm mannitol, vitrified swollen shoots developed but died at this stage although the differentiated clumps remained green. No shoots elongated from shoot clumps cultured on the CGM. After a month, a little decrease in growth was observed but all shoot clumps cultured in medium containing 60 or 80 mm mannitol survived with some necrotic tissue forming especially on medium containing 80 mm mannitol. After subculturing onto fresh CGM for another month, shoot clumps cultured in medium containing 60 mm mannitol were healthy but 80% of shoot clumps cultured on medium containing 80 mm mannitol became necrotic and died. In the second subculture, all shoot clumps cultured onto medium containing 80 mm mannitol died. After 3 months, 36 and 12 shoot clumps out of 72 clumps cultured on CGM containing 0 and 60 mm mannitol, respectively, survived. These surviving shoot clumps were transferred onto SGM with 0 or 60 mm mannitol for shoot clumps previously cultured on CGM with 0 or 60 mm mannitol, respectively, to stimulate shoot growth (Fig. 1, step 3). Some of the shoot clumps cultured onto SGM became necrotic and stopped growth regardless of the medium used to maintain the shoot clumps during the previous 9 months. Many of the shoots developed from shoot clumps cultured on medium containing mannitol died at an early stage after reaching approximately 0.5 cm in length. The number of shoots developed from clumps at this stage was 12 from five shoot clumps in mannitolfree medium and four shoots from two shoot clumps in medium containing mannitol. Shoots developed on mannitol-free medium were named as P1 P12, and those developed in stressed medium named as PM1 PM4. Two shoots from those developed from non-stressed shoot clumps were discarded because of contamination. Developing shoots were excised and micropropagated as clones on SGM (Fig. 1, step 4). Shoot tip segments continued growth as a main stem but the two axillary buds on nodal segments developed into shoots and all axillary buds on developing shoots sprouted. After 2 months of micropropagation all shoots became weak, developing small narrow leaves and long nodes. To achieve normal growth, plants were transferred in vivo to a greenhouse (Fig. 1, step 5). All transferred plantlets survived and developed normal shoots within a month In itro screening of clones for drought tolerance Nodes from greenhouse-grown plants were excised from each clone and cultured on SGM containing 0 or 60 mm mannitol (Fig. 1, step 6). The percentage of surviving explants which developed new shoots varied from 75 to 100% in mannitolfree medium and from 30 to 100% in medium containing mannitol. However, although the percentage survival of segments on medium containing mannitol for clones P2, P6, P8, PM1 and PM2 was 100%, the developing shoots and roots were too small to obtain fresh/dry weight measurements (Fig. 3). There were significant differences among clones in both shoot fresh and dry weights and in the response of these parameters to mannitol (Figs. 4 and 5). There were also significant differences among clones in root fresh and dry weights (data not presented). Plantlets from clone PM3 cultured on medium containing mannitol gave shoot fresh and dry weights of 298 and 27 mg 1, respectively. These weights did not differ from those for plantlets grown on mannitol-free medium. Plantlets from four of the clones developed on medium without mannitol were transferred to the greenhouse for 2 months (Fig. 1, step 7). These clones and control plants were tested for drought tolerance by culturing nodal explants on SGM containing 0, 30, 60 or 90 mm mannitol (Fig. 1, step 8). Percentage survival was not a good indicator of osmotic stress as most cultured nodes, even in medium containing the highest mannitol concentration, remained green while showing no further growth. Fig. 6 shows that shoot fresh and dry weights were significantly decreased by all mannitol concentrations for all plants except for PM3 clone, which previously showed a high tolerance to drought. There was no difference in biomass when the drought-tolerant clone PM3 was grown on medium containing 0 or 30 mm mannitol. Plants

6 218 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) of two clones, one from the non-stress selected shoot clumps and one from stress-selected shoot clumps were very sensitive to osmotic stress based on shoot fresh and dry weight measurements. A drought-sensitive regenerated clone P4, from nonstress-selected shoot clumps, the drought tolerant clone PM3 which developed from stress-selected shoot clumps, and the control plants grown on SGM without mannitol, were all cloned from shoot tips and returned to the greenhouse to test their response to drought stress in vivo Proline and soluble sugars content Neither the proline content nor soluble sugars were significantly increased in either clones when 30 mm mannitol was added to the growth medium (P=0.11). Overall plantlets of clone PM3 exhibited a significantly higher proline content (P 0.001) than plantlets of P4, but a significant difference between clones could not be shown for the 0 and 30 mm mannitol individually. Overall PM3 plantlets grown in medium containing 0 or Fig. 3. T. minuta nodal segments of (from left to right) PM3 on SGM, PM3 on SGM containing 60 mm mannitol and P10, P7, P3 and PM1 on SGM containing 60 mm mannitol, after 1 month in culture. The scale is in centimeters. Fig. 4. Shoot fresh weight for T. minuta clones after 1 month of growth on medium containing mannitol. Clones have been arranged in descending order by weight of plants grown on medium with mannitol as a percentage of control plant weight. These values are shown for each clone. The bar shows the LSD for all pair comparisons at P=0.05. Clones P1 P10 were developed on mannitol-free CGM and clones PM1 PM4 were developed on CGM with mannitol.

7 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) Fig. 5. Shoot dry weights for T. minuta clones after 1 month of growth on medium containing mannitol. Clones have been arranged in descending order by weight of plants grown on medium with mannitol as a percentage of control plant weight. These values are shown for each clone. The bar shows the LSD for all pair comparisons at P=0.05. Clones P1 P10 were developed on mannitol-free CGM and clones PM1 PM4 were developed on CGM with mannitol. 30 mm mannitol had significantly higher soluble sugars content than P4 plantlets (Fig. 7) In i o testing of clones for drought tolerance When plants were exposed to the drought stress in the greenhouse the bottom leaves of the stressed plant, especially the control and the non-stress-selected clone P4, started to dry out after a month of drought stress. Before starting drought stress, control, non-stress-selected clone P4 and the stress-selected clone PM3 had a WP of to MPa, with no significant difference among them. Two months after drought stress, plants of the stress-selected clone PM3 had a WP of MPa, significantly lower than the WP of plants of the non-stress-selected clone P4 or the control plants grown in soil at 40% FC. In soil at 100% FC there was no significant difference between control, non-stress selected P4 and stress-selected PM3 plants (Table 1). Plant height and plant fresh and dry weights did not differ significantly between the clones or between the clones and the control before water stress was applied or after 2 months growth in soil at 100% FC. Plant height and fresh and dry weights were significantly reduced by drought (P for all of these parameters). Plants of the stress-selected clone PM3 grown in soil with 40% FC had a plant height and plant fresh and dry weight significantly greater than that of control or non-stress selected P4 plants (Table 1). Fresh and dry weights of stress-selected plants PM3 grown in soil at 40% FC were 38 and 41%, respectively of the unstressed control plants, whereas the equivalent values for control plants were 19 and 22%, and for the non-stress-selected clone P4 were 22 and 19%. Fig. 6. Shoot fresh (A) and dry (B) weights for T. minuta clones after 1 month of growth on medium containing mannitol. The bar shows the LSD for all pair comparisons at P=0.05. Missing bars represent zero value. Clones P1 and P4 were developed on mannitol-free CGM and clones PM2 and PM4 were developed on CGM containing mannitol.

8 220 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) stress-selected clone PM3 had RGR (fresh wt.) which was significantly higher than for the nonstress-selected P4 clone (152%) and control plants (142%). Also, stress-selected plants had RGR (dry wt.) which was significantly higher than for P4 (129%) and control plants (143%) (Table 1). Fig. 7. Proline (A) and soluble sugars content (B) of T. minuta clones after 1 month of growth on medium containing 0 or 30 mm mannitol. The bar shows the LSD for all pair comparisons at P=0.05. Relative growth rates (RGR) of to g g 1 day 1 (fresh wt.) and 0.06 to 0.07 g g 1 day 1 (dry wt.) were calculated for the plants in soil with 100% FC, with no significant difference between clones and control plants. Significant differences between the different clones and between clones and control plants grown in soil with 40% FC were recorded (P 0.001). Plants from the 4. Discussion The data show an inhibitory effect of mannitol on shoot fresh and dry weights. Also, cotyledons cultured on medium containing 60 mm mannitol showed no callus or shoot development. Mannitol has an inhibitory effect on plant growth by lowering the water potential of the medium, so cultured explants are unable to take up water and nutrients from the medium. Lipavska and Vreugdenhil [19] reported that the decrease in osmotic potential of the culture medium by mannitol caused a decrease in the dry matter accumulation of wheat embryos, rape seedlings and potato stem segments grown in vitro. Shoot clumps cultured on medium containing mannitol became necrotic and died after 3 months of culture on medium containing 80 mm mannitol. A reduction in callus growth due to mannitol has been reported previously in Brassica culture [20]. After 1 month of culture, 20 adventitious shoots developed from one shoot clump whereas after 9 months of culture on mannitol-free medium, only 12 shoots developed from a total of 72 shoot clumps. Thus, shoot clumps cultured on Table 1 Effect of drought stress on water potential and growth characteristics of regenerated clones and control plants of T. minuta after 2 months of drought stress a Plant FC b (%) WP c (MPa) Plant height Plant FW d Plant DW e RGR f FW RGR DW (cm) (g plant 1 ) (g plant 1 ) (g g 1 day 1 ) (g g 1 day 1 ) Control P Clone PM Clone LSD a Each value is the mean of 24 measurements. b Field capacity. c Water potential. d Fresh weight. e Dry weight. f Relative growth rate.

9 M.A.-H. Mohamed et al. / Plant Science 159 (2000) medium without osmotic stress for 9 months lost some of their regeneration ability. Regeneration ability is commonly decreased by repeated subculture of tissue in many plants. The reasons for loss of regenerative ability are not clearly understood and may be due to somaclonal variations, loss of a substance promoting the regeneration of fresh tissue, or epigenetic changes [21]. After growing clones without stress for 3 months, a significant change in the effect of mannitol on plant biomass was recorded when they were recultured in vitro. Some clones continued to grow in the presence of mannitol but others lost their potential to grow. This suggests that some clones had only a physiological adaptation to osmotic stress and that the plants lost their tolerance when the stress factor was removed from the medium. Similar physiological adaptations to stress conditions had been reported by Nabors [6]. Clones developed from non-stressed callus showed significant variations in growth when exposed to osmotic stress. Somaclonal variation among in vitro regenerated plants has been reported by Larkin and Scowcroft [22]. From four T. minuta clones regenerated under water stress, one clone exhibited greater shoot and root fresh and dry weights on medium containing mannitol than on mannitol-free medium. Both the drought-tolerant-selected clone PM3 and the non-stress-selected clone P4 grown on medium with 30 mm mannitol had higher proline content and soluble sugars, but not significantly so, than the same plants grown on mannitol-free medium. The accumulation of proline and soluble sugars in osmotically stressed plants of neither clone appears insufficient to relieve water stress. Hanson and Hitz [23] reported that, in many plants during moderate water stress, there was a 10- to 100-fold increase of free proline in leaf tissue. Alian et al. [24] showed that there was no correlation between the accumulation of proline and drought stress tolerance in tomato. Therefore, the drought-tolerant-selected clone of T. minuta in this study may have another strategy to tolerate water stress. Results suggested that the drought-tolerant-selected clone had a higher capacity to maintain membrane stability and/or low water potential and greater growth when grown on medium with low water potential. When this clone was tested in the greenhouse for drought, it yielded a higher biomass than other clones. This indicates that applying water stress during callus growth was efficient in selecting a drought tolerant plant. Hasissou and Bouharmont [25] reported similar findings for the culture of Triticum durum where, out of 30 plants surviving water stress, 13 exhibited tolerance to drought compared with unselected controls. In conclusion, one clone of T. minuta selected under drought appeared to show drought tolerance and had higher proline content and soluble sugars than the non-stress-selected clone even after growth in non-stress conditions for 6 months. Also, in vivo results showed that it had a higher yield and RGR under water stress than other regenerated clones or plants grown from seeds. Under non-stress conditions, the stress-selected clone exhibited similar growth characteristics to other tested plants. Further studies are required to investigate the mechanism in drought tolerance of the regenerated clones and the inheritance of this trait through sexual reproduction. Acknowledgements This investigation was financially supported by The Ministry of Higher Education, Egypt. References [1] R.T. Neher, The ethnobotany of Tagetes, Econ. Bot. 22 (1968) [2] J.A. Soule, Tagetes minuta: A potential new herb from South America, in: New Crops Proceeding of the Second National Symposium New Crop Exploration. Research & Commercial Utilisation, Indiana 1991, Wiley, New York, 1993, pp [3] P. Vasudevan, K. Suman, S. Satyawati, Tagetes: A multipurpose plant, Bioresour. Technol. 7 (1997) [4] J. Kimpinski, W.J. Arsenault, Nematodes in annual ryegrass, marigold, mustard, red clover and soybean, Forage Notes 37 (1994) [5] E.A. Bray, Plant response to water deficit, Trends Plant Sci. 2 (1997) [6] M.W. Nabors, Environmental stress resistance procedure and applications, in: J.D. Philip (Ed.), Plant Cell Line Selection, VCH, Weinheim, 1990, pp [7] K. Dorffling, H. Dorffling, G. Lesselich, In itro selection and regeneration of hydroxyproline-resistant lines of winter wheat with increased proline content and increased frost tolerance, Plant Physiol. 142 (1993) [8] R.H. Smith, S. Bhaskaran, F.R. Miller, Screening for drought tolerance in sorghum using cell culture, In Vitro Cell Dev. Biol. 21 (1985)

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