Technology for the Production of Somatic Seeds Useful for the Storage of Valuable Genotypes of Salvia officinalis

Developing a method to store valuable genotypes is very important for Salvia officinalis, which is an insect-pollinated plant and flowers in the second year of cultivation from seed. Moreover, somatic seeds can ensure the storage of plant line with a guarantee of genetic homogeneity and propagation of variable genotypes such as transgenic plants. In this context, research into the improvement of biotechnological methods for the production of high-quality somatic seeds is highly important. Current research has attempted to produce and convert somatic seeds that would enable the long- or medium-term preservation of valuable sage genotypes. The creation of artificial seeds consisted in placing explants capable to regenerating into plants in a protective casing. The apical and axillary buds were collected from the multi-shoot cultures, encapsulated with 1.2% sodium alginate solution, and then dripped into the 200 mM CaCl₂ solution. The occurring reaction of exchanging calcium ions with sodium ions leads to the formation of a beads with a hard polymer coat. After production, somatic seeds were placed on MS medium containing 0.3 mg L^-1 of BAP to convert them. The method of obtaining somatic seeds used in this study allowed to obtain a high level of conversion of seeds into plants using apical buds (85%), and slightly lower in the case of axillary buds (62.5%). However, the difference in seed viability in the ANOVA analysis of variance was at the level of p <0.01. Therefore, it can be assumed that the usefulness of the developed method applies to both initial explants. The obtained results concerning the formation and conversion of somatic seeds allowed to obtain a high level of plant viability, which may prove the usefulness of the method of storing valuable Salvia officinalis genotypes.