Relationship between endogenous hormonal content and somatic organogenesis in callus of peach (Prunus persica L. Batsch) cultivars and Prunus persica × Prunus dulcis rootstocks

The relationship between endogenous hormones content and the induction of somatic peach plant was studied. To induce multiple shoots from callus derived from the base of stem explants of the scion cultivars ‘UFO-3’, ‘Flariba’ and ‘Alice Bigi’, and the peach × almond rootstocks ‘Garnem’ and ‘GF677’, propagated plants were cultured on Murashige and Skoog salts augmented with 0.1 mg L−1 of indolebutyric acid, 1 mg L−1 of 6-benzylaminopurine and 3% sucrose. The highest regeneration rate was obtained with the peach × almond rootstocks. Endogenous levels of abscisic acid (ABA), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), zeatin (Z), zeatin riboside (ZR), ethylene precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC), salicylic acid (SA), and jasmonic acid (JA) were analyzed in the organogenic callus. Lower levels of several hormones, namely Z, ZR, ABA, and ACC were found in the peach × almond rootstock compared to peach cultivars, while IAA and SA presented inconclusive returns. These results suggest that the difference in somatic organogenesis capacity observed in peach and peach × almond hybrids is markedly affected by the endogenous hormonal content of the studied genotypes.