Effect of culture medium consistence and silver nitrate on micropropagation of two potato (Solanum tuberosum) cultivars

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the main crops of the Andes region in Venezuela where some S. tuberosum ssp. andigena cultivars are used, including Arbolona negra. Since 1946, the Andean cultivars have been slowly substituted with foreign potato seeds, for example cv. Granola from Germany. Potato micropropagation is an excellent alternative for the conservation of native cultivars, for the massive production of potato seeds and for the production of plantlets with adequate growth parameters that allow the study of potato-pathogen interactions. However, potato's vitroplants frequently show symptoms caused by ethylene accumulation in the culture flasks. In this work, we compare the in vitroresponse of Granola and Arbolona negra cultivars using MS semi-solid or liquid medium supplemented or not with AgNO3. These potato cultivars did not show epinasty or hyperhidricity symptoms caused by ethylene when were cultivated on MS (1962) semi-solid medium supplemented with AgNO3 2 mg l-1. Under these conditions, leaf area shows the highest values for both cultivars, but there were no differences in others growth parameters such as stem length or leaf number in comparison with plantlets cultivated on medium without AgNO3. These results allowed us to recommend the use of semi-solid medium supplemented with AgNO3 for the micropropagation of these two cultivars.

Keywords

• native potato
• ethylene
• vitroplantlets