USING TISSUE CULTURE TECHNIQUE IN MICROPROPAGATION OF SWEET POTATO (ipomoea batatas)

Abstract

The current study was conducted at tissue culture laboratory of Vegetable and Floriculture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University during the period from 2010-2012. A protocol is described for rapid and large-scale propagation of the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) by in vitro culture of shoot tips or nodal segments as explants. The best sterilization method for the explants was observed by using Hg Cl2 at 0.1 % for 14minutes and70%ethanol for 30 seconds. Nodal segments were found to be more efficient than shoot tips for sweet potato shoots regeneration on MS medium (Murashig and skoog, 1962) supplemented with 2ip at 4 mg/l + 0.5 mg/l GA3.