Effect of kinetin on in vitro microtuber initiation of potato and cryopreservation

Abstract EN

The experiments were carried out in plant tissue culture labs.

Date Palm Research Unit, College of Agriculture, University of Baghdad, Iraq from Jun 2012 to July 2013.

Experiments included adding Kinetin at 0, 3, 5 and 7 mg/L to MS medum with 80g/L sucrose for three potato cultivars Emma, Santé, and Arnova.

The study experiments were designed as factorial experiments using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with l0 replicates for three potato cultivars for each concentration.

After 8 weeks it’s clear that the best concentration was 7mg/L for all traits under study (average of microtubers number/plant, average weight of the microtubers/plant (g), average diameter of the microtubers (mm), percentage of dry matter of microtubers, percentage of starch in microtubers, and percentage of protein in microtubers) but the cultivars were different, Emma was superiority in average weight of the microtubers/plant (0.566g) and average diameter of the microtubers (19.91mm) but Santé was superiority in percentage of dry matter of microtubers (19.25%) and percentage of starch in microtubers (13.15%), while Arnova was superiority in average of microtubers number/plant (4.20 microtuber/plant) and percentage of protein in microtubers (1.97%).

Microtubers were harvested and preserved at 4°C for three periods 2, 4, and 6 months (after placed in glass Jars covered with cotton).

All preservation periods gave 100% of success without any blighter.

Experience can be concluded that increasing the concentration of kinetin (7 mg/L) led to increase the number and size of the microtubers and possible preserved for 6 months without any damage.