Murashige and Skoog medium

Mammillaria sp. on MS media

Murashige and Skoog medium (or MSO or MS0 (MS-zero)) is a plant growth medium used in the laboratories for cultivation of plant cell culture. MSO was invented by plant scientists Toshio Murashige and Folke K. Skoog in 1962 during Murashige's search for a new plant growth regulator. A number behind the letters MS is used to indicate the sucrose concentration of the medium. For example, MS0 contains no sucrose and MS20 contains 20 g/l sucrose. Along with its modifications, it is the most commonly used medium in plant tissue culture experiments in laboratorium.^[1]

As Skoog's doctoral student, Murashige originally set out to find an as-yet undiscovered growth hormone present in tobacco juice. No such component was discovered; instead, analysis of juiced tobacco and ashed tobacco revealed higher concentrations of specific minerals in plant tissues than were previously known. A series of experiments demonstrated that varying the levels of these nutrients enhanced growth substantially over existing formulations. It was determined that nitrogen in particular enhanced growth of tobacco in tissue culture.

Ingredients

Mammillaria miegiana on liquid MS media

Major salts (macronutrients)

• Ammonium nitrate (NH₄NO₃) 1,650 mg/l
• Calcium chloride (CaCl₂ · 2H₂O) 440 mg/l
• Magnesium sulphate (MgSO₄ · 7H₂O) 370 mg/l
• Potassium phosphate (KH₂PO₄) 170 mg/l
• Potassium nitrate (KNO₃) 1,900 mg/l

Minor salts (micronutrients)

• Boric acid (H₃BO₃) 6.2 mg/l
• Cobalt chloride (CoCl₂ · 6H₂O) 0.025 mg/l
• Cupric sulphate (CuSO₄ · 5H₂O) 0.025 mg/l
• Ferrous sulphate (FeSO₄ · 7H₂O) 27.8 mg/l
• Manganese sulphate (MnSO₄ · 4H₂O) 22.3 mg/l
• Potassium iodide (KI) 0.83 mg/l
• Sodium molybdate (Na₂MoO₄ · 2H₂O) 0.25 mg/l
• Zinc sulphate (ZnSO₄·7H₂O) 8.6 mg/l
• Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid ferric sodium (NaFe-EDTA) constituting 5 mL/L of a stock solution containing 5.57 g FeSO4.7H2O and 7.45 g Na2-EDTA per litre of water.

Vitamins and organics

• Myo-Inositol 100 mg/l
• Nicotinic Acid 0.5 mg/l
• Pyridoxine · HCl 0.5 mg/l
• Thiamine · HCl 0.1 mg/l
• Glycine 2 mg/l
• Lactalbumin Hydrolysate (Edamin) (optional) 1 g/l
• Indole Acetic Acid 1-30 mg/l
• Kinetin 0.04-10 mg/l

References

• Murashige, T; Skoog, F (1962). "A Revised Medium for Rapid Growth and Bio Assays with Tobacco Tissue Cultures". Physiologia Plantarum. 15 (3): 473–497. doi:10.1111/j.1399-3054.1962.tb08052.x.