The Use of Plant Tissue Culture Techniques for Producing Virus Free Manihot esculenta Var. MU51 Plants

Abstract

Even though Manihot esculenta (Cassava) has been identi fi ed worldwide as a key starchy crop, it contains a rich number of phytochemicals that can be used for various purposes. However, conventi onal propagati on methods have led to an increase in viral diseases, creati ng a problemati c conditi on when using this species for the pharmaceuti cal industry. There is a lack of reliable protocols for the micropropagati on of cassava (Var. MU51) for mass producti on in industrial use. Therefore, this work aimed to develop a reliable method for the mass producti on of healthy, virus-free Manihot esculenta (Var. MU51) for industrial applicati ons. The focus was on creati ng a micropropagati on protocol for the variety MU51, involving opti mal surface sterilizati on and eff ecti ve hormonal combinati on for shoot proliferati on and ideal media for meristem culture. According to the study, a 10% Clorox soluti on, coupled with an exposure durati on of 15 minutes, manifested the most noteworthy success rate (78 %) in preventi ng contaminati on (P < 0.05). In the context of the proliferati on of shoots from M. esculenta nodes, the applicati on of 0.5 mg/l BAP + 0.1 mg/l NAA as well as 1mg/l BAP + 0.1mg/l NAA following 5 weeks, the nodal segments that underwent shoot proliferati on exhibited comparable growth in both treatments without signifi cant diff erence (P > 0.05). The initi ati on of meristem growth was carried out uti lizing a solid Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium forti fi ed with a blend of 0.1 mg/l BAP, 0.25 mg/l GA3, and 0.2 mg/l NAA, in additi on to a standard MS medium. The hormonal MS medium demonstrated a signifi cantly superior survival rate (87%) (P < 0.05). The current investi gati on underscores the opti mal conditi ons for miti gati ng contaminati on risks and promoti ng desirable outcomes in M. esculenta shoot proliferati on and meristem growth, thereby contributi ng valuable insights to the fi eld.