An assessment of the cultural capabilities of Trifolium repens L. (white clover) and Onobrychis viciifolia Scop. (sainfoin) mesophyll protoplasts.

Mesophyll protoplasts isolated from white clover and sainfoin divided to form callus under similar cultural conditions. White clover protoplasts showed varietal differences in their plating efficiency. Sainfoin tissues regenerated readily by forming shoots, but induction of morphogenesis in white clover was only achieved after testing several media and culture sequences. Many of the white clover shoots were abnormal in being fused together to form green plate-like structures, but the latter still developed into plantlets while attached to the parent callus. The ability to isolate, culture, and regenerate mesophyll protoplasts of these two forage legumes is discussed in relation to future attempts to produce somatic hybrids between high tannin containing bloat-safe sainfoin and other major forage legumes such as alfalfa, white clover, and red clover.