In Vitro Propagation of Selected Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) Varieties (C 86-56 and C 90-501) through Apical Meristem

Abstract

Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum L.) is monocotyledonous crop plant that mostly propagates through conventional methods. However, conventional propagation lacks rapid multiplication procedures to commercialize newly released varieties within a short period of time. Hence, the objective of this work was to optimize in vitro micro propagation protocol for two sugarcane varieties (C 86-56 and C 90-501) through apical meristem explants. The two varieties were cultured on MS medium supplemented with different concentrations of growth regulators on shoot initiation, multiplication, rooting and acclimatization stages. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that the two varieties showed statistically significant difference in their response to the various hormonal treatments with regard to the parameters measured. For initiation stage vars. C 86-56 and C 90-501 performed best on 1.0 mg/l and 1.5 mg/l of BAP, respectively. On the other hand, multiplication stage was best in MS media enriched with 1.5 mg/l BAP+1.0 mg/l NAA and 1.0 mg/l BAP+1.0 NAA as manifested in terms of mean number of shoots and mean shoot length for vars. C 90-56 and C 90-501, respectively. With regard to root induction, best rooting response in terms of mean root number and mean root length was achieved best in 1/2 MS media enriched with 1.5 mg/l NAA+0.5 mg/l BAP and 1.0 mg/l NAA+0.5 mg/l BAP for vars. C 86-56 and C 90-501, respectively. Survival rate during acclimatization was best on coco peat media for both varieties C 86-56 and C 90-501 survived 90% and 70%, respectively. Lastly, factors causing low acclimatization, tissue dying, contamination and phenol exudation in the study should be further investigated.