Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture 9:159-165 (1987) © Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht - Printed in the Netherlands Short communication Micropropagation of Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus (Japanese radish) cv. Gungjung KEE YOEUP PAEK, I STEPHEN F. CHANDLER & TREVOR A. THORPE* Plant Physiology Research Group, Department of Biology, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4, 1Permanent address: Dept. of Horticulture, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju 310, South Korea; (*addresseefor correspondence) Received 6 August 1986, accepted in revised form 26 January 1987 Key words: plant regeneration, propagation, radish, Raphanus sativus, shoot culture, tissue culture Abstract. Shoot cultures were established from seedling shoot tips of Raphanus sativus var. longipinnatus Bailey cv. Gungiung, (Japanese radish) cultured on a Murashige-Skoogmedium supplemented with ca. 4.5-135/zM kinetin or N6-benzyladenine.The latter cytokinin suppor- ted overall better growth, and 22.2 #M was adopted for maintenance of established cultures. The nitrate : ammonium levels in the medium proved optimal for growth and shoot prolifera- tion and both these parameters were significantly increased by addition of adenine sulfate or sodium phosphate. Rooting of excised shoots was achieved on auxin containing medium. Indole-3-butyric acid (ca. 5 or 10pM) also enhanced shoot growth. Plants were easily estab- lished in soil, appeared morphologically normal, and flowered. Introduction Micropropagation is now well established as an applied technique employ- ing tissue culture for improvement of plant quality [1, 2]. In this paper we present a procedure for the establishment of in vitro shoot cultures from seedlings of a white cultivar of Raphanus sativus L. var. longipinnatus Bailey, commonly known as oriental, Chinese or Japanese radish. This is a very popular vegetable in Eastern Asia [4] where the root is either eaten fresh or is pickled. However, except for a brief mention of multiple shoot formation [3] this species has not been extensively studied in vitro. This report describes establishment of shoot cultures from seedling shoot tips, the effect of nitro- gen supply and the supplements adenine sulfate and sodium phosphate on the rate of shoot culture proliferation and methods for plant regeneration. Some radish cultivars are biennial and plants must undergo vernalization to induce flowering. Development of a vegetative propagation system would