Evaluation of Different Starches as Gelling Agents for Micropropagation of Potato

Abstract

Unavailability of clean planting material is a major constraint of potato production in Eritrea. In vitro multiplication is proved to be a reliable solution; however, due to high media cost and initial investment, its use has been limited. The current study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of three starches (corn, potato and barley) of both laboratory and commercial grades as agar substitute, for micropropagation of potato. Single nodes of potato were sub-cultured into a fresh modified Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with sucrose (3% w/v) and gelled with 50 g/l of six types of starches in addition to 7 g/l of agar as a control. Gelling agents used showed a highly significant difference in all measured parameters. The pH of all starch based media increased by 0.23-1.3 units during the culture time except the control media which decreased by 0.4 units. Similarly EC showed a decreasing trend in all gelling agents. In most of the measured physical parameters such as plant height, root length, fresh weight and dry weight three starch based media namely laboratory grade potato, commercial corn and laboratory corn showed better results compared to the control media. Survival of in vitro plantlets ranged between 85 and 90% after acclimatization. Both laboratory and commercial grade starch based media resulted in cost reduction of 15-22% and 61-66%, respectively. This implies that using both corn and potato starches can be reliable and cost effective gelling agents for micropropagation of potato.

The Use of Wheat Starch as Gelling Agent for In Vitro Proliferation of Blackberry (Rubus fruticosus L.) Cultivars and the Evaluation of Genetic Fidelity after Repeated Subcultures

“…Similar results were obtained in a previous study conducted by Amlesom et al in 2021 [71], who evaluated the efficacy of three types of starch (corn, potato, and barley) in both laboratory and commercial grades as alternatives to agar for potato micropropagation.…”

Low cost alternatives for micro propagation of Moringa (Moringa stenopetala L.)

“…Cost reduction of up to 70% was achieved using enset starch as gelling agent without its effect on shoot multiplication and rooting. Similar results with 66 to 90% gelling agent cost reduction were reported using potato starch, rice flour, cassava flour and corn flour (Daud et al, 2011;Sharifi et al, 2010;Ogero et al, 2011;Amlesom et al, 2021) and balanga seeds (Jabeen et al, 2017). Therefore, use of low cost alternative media effectively reduced production cost for moringa micropropagation.…”

“…To mention some, commercial grade sugar in India for banana micro propagation (Ganapathi et al, 1995), solar illuminated tissue culture rooms in Cuba, refined and unrefined white and brown sugar for coconut culture (Bonaobra et al, 1994;Silvosa-Millado et al, 2020) and sugarcane in Ethiopia (Getnet et al, 2016). In addition, gelling agents such as isubgol, sago, enset starch, corn starch for the culture of fruit crops were reported (Bhattacharyya et al, 1994;Zimmerman et al, 1995;Mengesha et al, 2012;Amlesom et al, 2021;Dhawale et al, 2021).…”

Plant tissue culture challenges in Ethiopia and alternative options for low-cost media

“…Nevertheless, starch is hydrolyzed by plant amylolytic enzymes during in vitro tissue culture (Lima et al, 2011). To evaluate this situation, Amlesom et al (2021) examined three alternative low-cost corn, potato, and barley starches at 50 g/L as a solidifying substitution for commercial agar for the micropropagation of potato. It has been found that substituting agar with alternative starches showed a significant reduction in the cost of a solidifying agent.…”