Local Sugars Alternatives for Tissue Culture of <i>Dendrobium</i> Hybrid CV. <i>Sonia</i>

Abstract

In developing countries, commercial exploitation of tissue culture technology is limited by high cost of production. An Assessment of the effectiveness of using low cost alternative sugars for the in vitro micropropagation of Dendrobium cv. Sonia was investigated. Protocom-Like Bodies (PLBs) were multiplied in Murashige and Skoog (MS) liquid medium with 3.0mgL^-1 benzyl adenine (BA) and 15% (v/v) coconut water. After the fifth subculture, 48.9% of the PLBs showed abnormal growth and 17.0% turned brown. PLBs after the first subculture were transferred to solidified MS medium with 01.mgL^-1 BA , 1.0 mgL^-1 NAA, 15% (v/v) coconut water, 20gL^-1 analytical grade sucrose and local sugars such as refined brown sugar, refined dark brown sugar, unrefined dark brown sugar, refined white sugar and super refined white sugar. No significant difference (p>0.05) was observed between analytical grad sucrose and local sugars. Healthy PLBs were obtained on solidified MS media supplemented with 20gL^-1 refined brown, refined dark brown, unrefined dark brown and super refined white sugars. Browning of PLBs was obtained on MS medium with 20gL^-1 refined local white sugars. Results indicated that when local sugars are used, the cost incurred on the importation of analytical grade sucrose can be reduced by more than 99%.

Keywords: sugars, Protocorm-like bodies, Murashige and Skoog medium, cost