New approaches for reducing the cost of the synthetic seeds storage using sugarcane bagasse and different additives to the gel matrix for sugarcane plant in vitro.

Abstract

SUGARCANE (Saccharum officinarum L.) is a perennial monocot plant, the major source of sugar and an important cash crop in the world. The plant does not produce seeds in Egypt and mostly produced through vegetative propagation. Hence, it is necessary to propagate this plant through in vitro culture for large scale production, which can be used commercially for germplasm conservation using synthetic seeds. New supporting material like sugarcane bagasse reducing the cost of synthetic seeds storage and different additive to the gel matrix were used. In vitro production and conservation of synthetic seed in sugarcane plant were studied. Encapsulation is a method for micro- shoots coating using Na-alginate for synthetic seeds conservation. The developed protocol in this study is a simple and effective tool for mass propagation, storage of synthetic seeds and minimize the production cost as well. Maximum shoots proliferation was observed on MS medium containing 1mg/l BA and 0.8mg/l NAA. Sodium alginate was very effective for the formation of uniform and firm capsules at the concentration 4% (w/v) sodium alginate and 100 mM calcium chloride. The highest germination rate of synthetic seeds was recorded at 20 or 25 g/l sucrose in the gel matrix. The synthetic seeds with synthetic endosperm consist of MS medium supplemented with, ABA at (1.00 or 1.25 mg/l) gave the lowest regrowth of synthetic seeds (1.66%) with high viability and the ability to regrowth when they transferred to the natural environmental conditions. Maximum regrowth and low storage cost of synthetic seeds were obtained with MS medium supplemented with sugarcane bagasse compared with those grown on agar-gelled media.