<em>In vitro</em> propagation of cuban rice cultivar Jucarito-104

Abstract

In vitro propagation is an efficient method of propagating disease-free, genetically uniform and massive amounts of in vitro plants, irrespective of the year season. This study was carried to develop a micropropagation system for the cuban Jucarito-104 rice cultivar and to evaluate the response of rice in vitro plantlets to different cytokinins (6-BAP and kinetin) and liquid or semisolid MS culture media, in order to identify treatments to achieve shoot multiplication. Best results were obtained using 5.0mg.l-1 of 6-BAP in MS liquid medium: seven axillary buds per initial explants after seven days of in vitro culture of plantlets. Acclimatization was acceptable without adding auxins on rooting media in order to obtain 100% of plants with normal root. This result may facilitate the application of biotechnological approaches for improving this rice cultivar. Key words: axillary buds, cytokinins, liquid culture media