In Vitro Propagation of Three Moroccan Prickly Pear Cactus Opuntia and Plant Establishment in Soil

• Main Authors: Aissam EL FINTI, Rachida EL BOULLANI, Naima AIT AABD, Fouad MSANDA, Mohammed A. SERGHINI, Abdelhamid EL MOUSADIK
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Cluj-Napoca 2013-02-01
• Series: Notulae Scientia Biologicae
• Online Access: http://notulaebiologicae.ro/index.php/nsb/article/view/8354

<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 200%; mso-layout-grid-align: none;" class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opuntia </span></span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;;">is one of the most widespread cacti, primarily due to their edible fruit and vegetable mass used as feed. The high demand for young plants of </span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opuntia </span></span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;;">made it necessary to find a rapid method of multiplication of the cactus, the safest method consisting <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">in vitro </span>micropropagation of species belonging to this genus. With aim of large production of plant material, a propagation system of three important prickly pear cactus cultivar (</span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opuntia ficus-indica</span></span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;;">) in Morocco was developed. Segments of healthy young cladode (containing one areole) were cultivated in Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) containing adenine sulfate (40 mg/1), monosodium phosphate (50 mg/l), sucrose (50 g/l), phytagel (0.3%) and benzyladenine (BA) at 22.2 μM, to start the process of micropropagation. In vitro-developed shoots from areoles were used as secondary explants to induce shoot development in the MS medium with 5 mg/l of BA. All of the three studied cultivars showed an important multiplication rate in this medium. ‘Sidi Ifni M’ (‘Moussa’) cultivar shows the greatest number of shoots followed by ‘Sidi Ifni A’ (‘Aissa’) and ‘Delahia’ 17.26, 14.12 and 12.13 respectively. Rooting of </span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">in vitro</span></span><span lang="FR" style="color: #221e1f; line-height: 200%; font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;; font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: &quot;Garamond Premr Pro Subh&quot;;">-generated shoots was achieved most efficiently on half-strength MS basal medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/l of indole-3-butyric acid (IBA) or IAA. Rooting frequencies were in the range from 95 to 100% and the highest mean number of root (19.1) was obtained with IBA for ‘Delahia’ cultivar. All micropropagated plants were transferred to greenhouse and all of them survived acclimatization process and showed good overall growth.</span><strong style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"></strong></p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span>