The high frequency of variegated forms after in vitro mutagenesis in Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl.

The leaf-explants of Saintpaulia ionantha Wendl. var.'miniature' were treated by different doses of MNH and cultured on shoot regeneration medium. A strong toxic effect of some MNH doses on explant survival during the first two subcultures was noticed. The explants surviving treatment regenerated shoots with the efficiency comparable to the control. The high number of shoots regenerated from mutagenised leaves showed chlorophyll chimerism (so-called variegated forms). The use of 5 mM MNH for 1.5 or 2 h was found very effective, as 100% of survived explants regenerated variegated shoots. Besides hundreds of variegated forms also leaf-shape and flower-colour variants were observed in MNH-treated culture. Somaclonal variation was not observed in the control culture. The results indicate the great efficiency of in vitro applied MNH for in-duction of morphological variants of Saintpaulia, and especially variegated forms