In vitro multiplication of Gmelina arborea Roxb. adult trees

Abstract

Melina (Gmelina arborea Roxb.) is a forest species with fast growing, tall trees. Melina propagation is based on cuttings isolated from juvenile seedlings. The present research focused on micropropagation of melina plants, grown from cuttings isolated from mature trees. Explants were surface disinfected with NaOCl (0.5%) and established on semisolid MS with (in mg L-1) myo-inositol (100), sucrose (30.000) and TC-agar (7.000). The effect of BAP (0; 0.44; 1.33 and 2.22μM) on shoot proliferation, AIB (0, 0.49, 1.48 and 2.46μM) on in vitro rooting and substrate (sand and peat) on ex vitro survival were evaluated. Treatments were distributed with a complete randomized design, 20 replicates per treatment and 80 total experimental units were evaluated. Collected data showed that compared to control BAP increased shoot proliferation, shoot length and leaf number, while IBA induced higher root number, root length and rooting percentages. Higher survival rates were observed when plants were transferred to peat.

Keywords

• BAP
• Forest tree
• In vitro rooting
• Micropropagation