IN-VITRO PRODUCTION OF POTATO MICROTUBERS AND THEIR USE AS PROPAGATION MATERIAL

Abstract

The objective of this study was to produce in-vitro potato

microtubers m order to be used as basic material for seeds multiplication instead of impotation with hard currency.

Thi s study was divided into two mian parts as follows : I Producing virus-free plantlets by u sing different media of Murashige and Skoog with different concentrations of kinetin. n Production of in-vitro potato microtubers u sing the above ment i oned plantlets produced in the first part and cultured on MS modifi ed media containing different concentrations of ammonium nitrate , sucrose , kinetin , and benzyladenine.

The two traditional potato varieties Nicol a and Dimant were used in this study.

The results obtained can be summeri zed in the following points : 1 - Concerning the production of virus-free plantlets , the best results were obtained by using MS medium containing 2 mg I L kinetin. 2- The highest number as well as weight and size ofmicrotubers was obtained by medium contained 825 mg I L ammonium nitrate (medium I) followed by the concentration of3300 I L (med ium II) . Whereas, the lowest values were obtained by medium III ( 4850 mg/L ammonium nitrate) . This was tn1e for variety Diamant, wereas, the opposite trend was observed by var iet y Nicola.

3-Amedium contained 50 g I L sucrose showed the best results with regard to number weight and size of microtubers. 4- Medium D which contained 2.5 mg I L kinetin recorded the highest

number and weight (mg) of microtubers per plantlet, and weight (mg) as well as, size (mm) per one microtuber . This was true for the two varieties under in vestgation.. 5- Medium G (2.5 mg IL benzyladenine ) produced the highest number, weight and size of rnicrotubers and weight (rng) as well as, size (mm) per one microtuber , for the two varieties. 6- Concerning potato varieties, variety Diamant surpassed variety Nicola with regard to all characters under investgation .