Abstract
Abstract Morphogenesis, growth and tuberization of potato in in vitro conditions can be influenced by light quality. Plant tissue culture normally uses fluorescent lamps (normal fluorescent light, NFL) to provide the red portion of the light spectrum and lots of green light, which is usually reflected from the leaves leading to low efficiency per quantum of light within the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) range. New light sources such as light-emitting diode (LED) lamps would provide more PAR for in vitro plant growth in addition to being energy efficient with low heat emission. Consequently, experiments were conducted to study the effect of LEDs and NFL on in vitro growth and subsequent minituber production in tissue-cultured potato plantlets of three European potato varieties, Kardal, Melody and Timo. The LEDs were tested at a low (76 µmol/m2/s) and high (121.8 µmol/m2/s) light intensity and compared with NFL at 121.8 µmol/m2/s as the control. For each variety, three plantlets representing one repetition in each light source were used. Results show that rate of plantlet growth, the number of nodes, internode length and average plant height after 4 weeks of in vitro growth were significantly (P≤0.05) affected by potato variety and light source but not their interaction. However, potato plantlets grown in LED conditions had fewer nodes than plantlets grown under NFL. Shoot biomass was significantly (P≤0.05) influenced by potato variety but not light source while root weight was significantly (P≤0.05) influenced by both potato variety and light source. Plantlets grown under low LED light intensity had a significantly lower root weight than plantlets grown under high LED light intensity. There were no significant differences in both root and shoot weight for plants grown under both NFL and LEDs at 121.8 µmol/m2/s. Light source during micropropagation did not significantly (P≤0.05) affect minituber production in in vivo conditions, except potato variety Timo produced significantly (P≤0.05) more tubers per plant than Kardal and Melody. The physical benefits for use of LEDs for in vitro micropropagation could not be demonstrated beyond influencing the number of nodes during in vitro and in vivo propagation. Unless there are commercial benefits of LEDs in terms of energy saving in ventilation and heat emission reduction, their high cost cannot be justified against their durability or the quality of spectrum that was used in this study.
Published Version
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