Effect of Explant Type and Phytohormone Concentration on Micropropagation of Citrus

Abstract

Citrus fruits are among the most popular fruits in the world, thanks to their energizing flavor and health advantages.In this work, the ideal levels of activated charcoal and plant growth regulators were determined for micropropagation of lemon. Citrus limon (Osbeck Family: Rutaceae) has been successfully regenerated in vitro using both direct and indirect organogenesis in the current study. For indirect organogenesis, callus was stimulated and multiplied from leaf explants of in vitro grown seedlings on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 6-Benzylaminopurine (BAP) alone or in conjunction with -naphthalene acetic acid (NAA). The placement of explants on MS medium containing BAP alone or in combination with NAA was done for direct organogenesis. For root multiplication, various concentrations of NAA were applied to well-developed microshoots. The frequency of callus induction with BAP(4µl) + NAA(0.2µl) was observed to be 94.5%. When the plants started to root, MS medium treated with 2.0 µl of IBA and 30 g/l of sucrose showed abundant root development. In order to quickly multiply disease-free potential material and take over wide regions in a short amount of time, it may be necessary to establish mature micropropagation methods for new elite lemon cultivars. This phenomena is therefore of fundamental economic relevance. In this study, it was shown that Microshoots were best rooted (90.8%) when IBA (2.0 µl) was treated for 48 hours with activated charcoal.