Articles
In vitro micropropagation of coffee (Coffea arabica) plants from several seed populations as a tool to develop a protocol to propagate elite cultivars
Article number
1466_15
Pages
113 – 118
Language
English
Abstract
In Ecuador and many other countries coffee is propagated by seeds, which limits the possibility of using selected genotypes.
The aim of this research was to develop a micropropagation protocol for coffee seeds that will set up the bases of standard procedures for elite cultivars in the future.
The requirements to propagate coffee in vitro are studied using different seed populations as the starting explants since the work was done in Spain, where coffee is not grown, and seeds were the easiest way to bring the material to our laboratory from Ecuador.
Additionally, in Ecuador plantations are made with seeds from selected genotypes, which is exactly the material we used here.
The knowledge gain will help in developing complete micropropagation protocols for elite coffee cultivars in the next future and this will allow clonal plantations with better productions and of higher quality.
To achieve this objective, coffee plants from 6 different seed populations were established by dissecting seed embryos after seed disinfection.
Disinfection of seed was not easy and several protocols had to be tested being critical, to obtain good disinfection and embryo germination, the utilization of sodium dichloroisocyanurate instead of sodium hypochlorite.
The effect of different concentrations of GA3 on embryos germination was studied and a significant positive effect on plant length was found for all seed populations.
Plants developed from embryos were cultured in medium supplemented with different concentrations of BA and GA3. Although the additions of BA improved significantly the number of new shoots and their length, the addition of GA3 produce a significant increase in both parameters specially in length producing shoots ready for rooting experiments.
Rooting of the micro plants was also evaluated using different conditions such as in vitro and ex vitro rooting.
In vitro rooted plants were then acclimatized to greenhouse conditions with percentage of success close to 100%. These plants have been maintained for more than one and a half year in the greenhouse where they have even produced fruits.
The aim of this research was to develop a micropropagation protocol for coffee seeds that will set up the bases of standard procedures for elite cultivars in the future.
The requirements to propagate coffee in vitro are studied using different seed populations as the starting explants since the work was done in Spain, where coffee is not grown, and seeds were the easiest way to bring the material to our laboratory from Ecuador.
Additionally, in Ecuador plantations are made with seeds from selected genotypes, which is exactly the material we used here.
The knowledge gain will help in developing complete micropropagation protocols for elite coffee cultivars in the next future and this will allow clonal plantations with better productions and of higher quality.
To achieve this objective, coffee plants from 6 different seed populations were established by dissecting seed embryos after seed disinfection.
Disinfection of seed was not easy and several protocols had to be tested being critical, to obtain good disinfection and embryo germination, the utilization of sodium dichloroisocyanurate instead of sodium hypochlorite.
The effect of different concentrations of GA3 on embryos germination was studied and a significant positive effect on plant length was found for all seed populations.
Plants developed from embryos were cultured in medium supplemented with different concentrations of BA and GA3. Although the additions of BA improved significantly the number of new shoots and their length, the addition of GA3 produce a significant increase in both parameters specially in length producing shoots ready for rooting experiments.
Rooting of the micro plants was also evaluated using different conditions such as in vitro and ex vitro rooting.
In vitro rooted plants were then acclimatized to greenhouse conditions with percentage of success close to 100%. These plants have been maintained for more than one and a half year in the greenhouse where they have even produced fruits.
Publication
Authors
J. Parrales-Villacreses, A. Valverde-Lucio, B. Indacochea-Ganchozo, L. Burgos
Keywords
coffee, micropropagation, rooting, acclimatization
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