PROPAGATION OF SAPOTA (CASIMIROA EDULIS) TREES BY USING TISSUE CULTURE TECHNIQUE

Abstract

A promising method for in vitro propagationof white sapota (Casimiroa edulis L.) was established. Shoot tips and nodal segments of C. eduils were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 2.22 µM 6-benzylamino purine (BAP) and 1.07µM ß-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) recorded the maximum growth percentage of 88.88 and 77.77%, and average shoot length of 2.76 and 2.4 cm, for shoot tips and nodal segments, respectively. Regarding shoots multiplication rate, it was significantly affected by the concentration of BAP, as 6.77 shoots /explant were recorded using MS medium containing 13.32µM BAP + 4.90 µM N6-2- isopenteny adenine (2iP). For rooting, half and full strength MS medium supplemented with 0.00, 2.46, 4.90, 9.80, 19.60 and 39.20 µM indol-3-butyric acid (IBA) in combination with 0.00 and 2.69 µM NAA were examined. The highest rooting percentage, average number of roots/shoot and average root length (44.44 %, 1.88 and 2.46 cm, respectively) were obtained on half strength MS medium containing 19.60 µM IBA and 2.69 µM NAA. Finally, plantlets were successfully acclimatized to greenhouse conditions and grew vigorously with no apparent phenotype aberrations.