Murashige and Skoog medium

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. MS0 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 the laboratory.[1] However, according to recent scientific findings, MS medium is not suitable as a nutrient solution for deep water culture or hydroponics.[2]

Mammillaria sp. on MS media in agar

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.