Responses of Different Explants of Sweet Potato on Modified MS and LS Based Nutrient Media in vitro

A good number of reports on sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) tissue culture using different tissues of various cultivars with varying level of efficiency and reproducibility are available but callus induction and plantlet regeneration are recalcitrant and limited to a few genotypes in response to different treatments in vitro. Reported in this paper is a procedure in which several explants of three high yielding and drought tolerant sweet potato cultivars (SK010, WHCH005 and PRAP496), mostly grown and cultivated in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG) were used to induce embryogenic callus and regenerate plantlets. To achieve a reliable and an efficient system for inducing embryogenic callus on stem, petiole and leaf disc explants, a modified form of Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Linsmaier and Skoog (LS) media, supplemented with 1 gL-1 picloram and 8 gL-1 agar was used. This procedure resulted in large amount of embryogenic calli that were potentially capable of regenerating whole plantlets on all the different types of explants tested. Further attempts made in plantlet regeneration failed, however ways in which improvement of the tested regeneration media can be made for plant regeneration in similar studies were discussed.