In-Vitro Propagation of Malus domestica and its Conservation

Abstract

Conventional methods of propagation commonly used for commercially important apple varieties are time consuming, laborious and induce disease transmission from donor to propagating plant. To overcome these problems, a study was designed to optimize the procedure for micropropagation and conservation of Apple. For this purpose, the excised shoot tips of apple varieties were collected from the field of Biological Conservation Institute (BCI), NARC, Islamabad. The surface sterilization of shoot tips was done with 10, 15 20 % sodium hypochlorite for 15 minutes followed by ethanol application at 10, 15 and 20 % for 15 minutes. It had been observed that 10 % of sodium hypochlorite showed maximum survival percentage for ex-plant establishment. After culture initiation, ex-plants were transferred to MS media with the addition of different hormones i.e., BAP at the concentration ranging from 0.1 to 1.5 mg/L, GA3 from 0.5 to 2.5 mg/L and IBA from 0.5 to 3.5 mg/L under aseptic conditions. The results revealed that maximum number of leaves, shoots and plant height was attained with the addition of BAP 0.1 mg/L as compared to other hormonal concentrations. Cultures were incubated at 25 ᵒC under 1000-1500 lux. The plants after propagation were shifted to conservation media for five months (sorbitol mannitol at 10, 20 and 30 g/L each). The use of sorbitol at the concentration of 10 g/L showed slowest growth recorded after 35 days. This optimized method can be used for efficient mass scale production of true type apple varieties and breeders may get disease free plantlets of apples.