EFFICACY OF ANTIMICROBIAL AGENTS ON IN VITRO MICROPROPAGATION POTENTIAL OF POTATO

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to find out the effect of different concentrations of antimicrobial agents viz., carbenicillin, streptocycline, cephotaxime and Plant Preservative Mixture (PPMTM; US patent no. 5,750,402) on in vitro growth and vigour of micro-plantlets of three potato varieties viz. Kufri Chandramukhi, Kufri Chipsona-3 and Kufri Sindhuri. The study revealed that antimicrobial agents, their different concentrations, potato varieties and their interaction had significant effect on different morphological characters viz., microplant height, inter-nodal length, number of leaves, nodes and roots, root length and fresh as well as dry weight. In general, carbenicillin upto 100 mg/l, cephotaxime upto 200 mg/l and PPM upto 0.15% had positive effect on all the morphological characters in all the three potato varieties except microplant root length in Kufri Chipsona-3 and Kufri Sindhuri as compared to control. Therefore, antimicrobial agents’ like carbenicillin upto 100 mg/l, cephotaxime upto 200 mg/l and PPM upto 0.15% can be used for controlling the in vitro microbial contamination without affecting the growth and vigour of micro-plantlets.