Studies on in vitro germplasm conservation in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the crops that cannot be conserved in seed banks. Until recently large germplasm collections, which were maintained in the field, required much labour besides exposure to climatic effects as well as pests and diseases. The in vitro storing of such collections in laboratory is quite capable of solving the problems in storage. The cultures whose growth rate is limited need not be sub-cultured frequently. The success of in vitro storage depends on growth limitation, which is possible by lowering temperature [1] and adding growth retardant to medium [2]. The present investigation was undertaken to study in vitro germplasm conservation in seven parental lines of TPS (MF-I, MF-II, TPS-7, TPS-13, TPS-67, JTH/C-107 and EX/A-680-16).