Meristem culture for the elimination of the virus S of the potato in plants cultivated <i>in vitro</i>

Abstract

The virus S of potato was detected in three varieties of scientific and productive interests during propagation in vitro of different genotypes. With the objective of obtaining plants free of virus, three sizes of meristems (0.3 to 0.2mm, 0.2 to 0.1mm, and 0.1 to 0.06mm) were studied. For the growth of the meristems a culture medium was used that contained Murashige and Skoog (1962) salts, 1 mg.l-1 thyamine, 100 mg.l-1 myoinositol, 1 mg.l-1 gibberelic acid and 1.8 mg.l-1 gelling agent. The plants regenerated from meristems and after two transfers to multiplication culture medium were diagnosed through the ELISA technique. As a result 96.6% of cleaness was obtained when the range of meristem size was from 0.1 to 0.06 mm. The regeneration percentages of plants from the meristems decreased, as the range of size was smaller. Key words: regeneration of plants, Solanum tuberosum L, virus infection, virus free plants