Studies of sterilization protocol development and calli induction of selected tropical mosses

Four tropical african mosses namely; racopilum africanum, thuidium gratum, archidium ohioense and bryum coronatum, were studied. this was with a view to developing a sterilization protocol and inducing calli from the gametophyte explants in vitro. the mosses were collected from their natural populations in the central campus of the obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria. healthy stem tips from the gametophytes of each of the mosses were sterilized with jik (containing 3.85 % m/v naoci) and then cultured on murashige and skoog (ms) 1962 full strength medium, which served as the control and a full strength ms medium supplemented with 5 mg/l 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-d). sterilization of the explants with 8 % jik for 8 minutes was found to be most suitable. only bryum coronatum produced calli on hormone free medium, while the 2,4-d induced massive production of calli in bryum coronatum and racopilum africanum.