COMPARISON OF DESICCATION TOLERANCE OF DESERT MOSS SYNTRICHIA CANINERVIS IN TISSUE CULTURE AND SAND CULTURE

Syntrichia caninervis is a stress-tolerant moss that has become an important experimental model for researches on desiccation tolerance and ecological restoration. However, its desiccation tolerance of In vitro culture remains poorly characterized. Here, we compared the morphological and physiological traits related to desiccation tolerance of regenerated mosses from Knop medium culture and sand substrate culture. In tissue culture, the explants first formed protonemata and then developed into gametophytes, whereas, the shoots grown on sand produced both protonemata and new gametophytes simultaneously. These results suggest the two regeneration patterns of S. caninervis have different phenotypic plasticity. Furthermore, under desiccation tolerance, the sand-cultured moss exhibits verrucose and spinous leaf surface, with higher abscisic acid (ABA) and trehalose contents than the tissue-cultured moss. However, the water responses during the processes of desiccation and rehydration were the same between the two cultured mosses, indicating that the two regenerated mosses possess the same desiccation -tolerant characteristics as wild mosses. By describing the desiccation tolerance of the two In vitro regenerated mosses, the findings of this study will help with efforts to provide sustainable and consistent materials for ongoing studies.