Regeneration Potential of Horseradish Cells Stored in Artificial Seeds with Limited Oxygen Supply

The effect of oxygen concentration on the regeneration potential of horseradish cell aggregates was investigated to develop artificial seeds capable of preserving the viability after long-terms torage at room temperature. When the cell aggregates were incubated for 20days at an oxygen concentration of 1.0―2.Omol/m3 in the gas phase, their viability was maintained without the regeneration of adventitious roots. The artificial seeds were prepared by encap-sulating the cell aggregates in alginate gel with various thicknesses of paraffin coat ranging from 0.35×10-3―1.3×10-3m. It was found that the cell aggregates in the artificial seeds maintained their ability to regenerate adventitious roots after storage for 30 to 60 days , although the efnciency of root regeneration decreased with increasing paraffin coat thickness. The dependence of root regeneration on paraffin coat thickness could be explained based on a model considering oxygen permeation through the alginate