Plant Tissue Cult. 7(2) : 81-88, 1997 (December)

In vitro Conservation of Taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum) Under Different Sucrose Levels

M. A. Yousuf Akhond, M. O. Islam¹ and M. Ali²

Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of Postgraduate Studies in Agriculture (IPSA), Salna, Gazipur-1703, Bangladesh

Key words: Colocasia, Conservation, In vitro

Abastract

Plantlets of taro (Colocasia esculenta var. antiquorum cv. Bilashi) were regenerated from shoot-tip-derived calli cultured on MS medium supplemented with 1 mg/1 a-napthaleneacetic acid (NAA) and 5 mg/1 6-benzyladenine (BA). In vitro storage at low temperature was tested by transferring well-developed plantlets to growth regulator free MS media containing different sucrose levels. The cultures were kept at 8⁰C in complete darkness while the control treatment was maintained on MS medium at 27 ? 1⁰C under light conditions. After 18 months of storage without subculture at 8⁰C in the dark, the plantlet survival rate was 92% for cultures containing 30 g/1 sucrose. The highest number of axillary shoot multiplication and the highest number of plantlets were obtained from medium containing 40 g/1 sucrose. Plantlet survival was 100% when transferred to soil. No morphological variation was observed among the plants of the population raised from in vitro long-term cultures.

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