Comparative In Vitro Growth Response o! Gerbera Plantlets Developed on Liquid and Solidified Culture Medium

摘要

The composition of culture media used for shoot proliferation and rooting has a tremendous influence on production costs of commercial tissue culture. Of die medium components, the gelling agents such as agar contribute 70% of the costs. The present investigation was undertaken with a view to study the efficacy of liquid MS medium in comparison to semisolid agar medium for in vitro multiplication of Gerbera plants to develop a cost effective method. Gerbera shoots were cultured in vitro on Murashigeand Skoog media, semisolid agar media and liquid media supported with Whatman filter paper boat, supplied with Indole butyric acid and sugar. Different growth parameters of the plants like plant height, number of leaves, leaf width, leaf length, number of roots and root length were observed. Phenotypic differences in growth were observed between the plantlets of both types of media. The plant lets in the liquid media exhibited an early 30 % growth of new leaves and early 8 % rooting showing higher leafand root number per plant Plandets cultured on liquid media showed better growth of shoot and roots as compared to solid media. The present observations could profitably be explored for the commercial cultivation of Gerbera.