ANTIMITOTIC EFFECTS OF ACENAPHTHENE AND TRIFLURALIN ON ANDROGENIC TOBACCO HAPLOIDS

In order to test the chromosome doubling effect of two antimitotic chemicals "trifluralin" and "acenaphthene", two experiments were conducted separately, using androgenetic haploid plantlets with 3 to 5 leaves of tobacco "Nicotiana tabacum cv. Saribaglar". Seed settings were considered in distinguishing dihaploids. In the trifluralin experiment, plantlets were treated in flasks containing liquid Nitsch medium and 0, 10, 30 and 50 [mu]M trifluralin for 24, 48 and 72 h on a 150 rpm shaker. Fifty plantlets were used per treatment and experimental design was split-plotted with three replications. The highest chromosome doubling was recorded for 24 h treatment with 10 [mu]M concentration. Acenaphthene experiment was carried out with 3 replications of monofactorial randomized plots. About 100 mg crystals were hanged into small sterilized cheesecloth bags into culture vessels (6x7cm) containing 5 haploid plantlets, for 48, 72 and 96 h. Fifty plantlets per treatment were used, and treatment effects were not significant, although average doubling ratios increased from 3.2 to 10.4% with increasing durations.