Micropropagation of Different Potato Cultivars in Upscaling Seed Potato Programme in Kenya

Abstract

Scarcity of good quality seed is a major constraint in potato (Solanum tuberosum) production coupled by high expensive gelling agent used in the micropropagation to produce clean pre-basic seed in the country. A study was set out to compare the performance of liquid and solid media in potato micropropagation using 10 potato cultivars. Sections of potato plantlet containing one node were aseptically inoculated at 5 nodes/kilner jar and incubated for four weeks at a light intensity of 3000 lux for 16 hours photoperiod at 20 CC. The culture media consisted of Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different growth regulator combinations of 0.01 mg/l GA3 and 0.001 mg/l kinetin. The procedures were repeated thrice after inoculation to remove shoots from the culture vessels to divide into sections containing several nodes which were inoculated onto fresh medium and repeated every three weeks for three months. The experiment was laid out as a two-factor randomized complete block design replicated four times and was repeated three times. Results showed that there was no difference (P≤ 0.05) between the liquid and the solid media regardless of the type of growth regulator used for the parameters shoot length, number of roots and number of nodes. Solid media was the best for development of complete plantlets and multiplication from meristem tips while liquid media supplemented with 0.01 mg/l GA3 and 0.001 mg/l kinetin for sub-culturing produced plantlets with the highest vigour with respect to shoot height, root length and number of nodes. There was variability of the cultivars in their response to the micropropagation media studied suggesting that there is need to develop a cheap micropropagation protocol that may be suitable for most Kenyan potato cultivars.