Effects of medium components on cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica (L.) Mill. genotype ‘M2’) organogenesis, and assessment of transplanting techniques and vitroplant fruit quality
摘要
An efficient and cost-effective regeneration system through adventitious organogenesis is reported for cactus pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) genotype ‘M2’. Various concentrations of cytokinins, antioxidants and carbon sources were evaluated during shoot proliferation, elongation and rooting. Using 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) significantly enhanced shoot bud proliferation when compared to other cytokinins. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) improved shoot bud proliferation (up to 20.20 buds per explant) while activated charcoal promoted shoot elongation and rooting (up to 6.57 cm shoot length, 100% rooting, 5.12 roots per shoot and 4.96 cm root length). Interestingly, commercial granulated sugar (≃ €0.5/kg) could replace sucrose (≃ €58.1/kg) throughout the organogenesis process. Two different transplantation methods (direct transplantation to the open field without acclimatization and transplantation of 6-month-acclimatized vitroplants) were evaluated and compared to conventional propagation. The direct transplantation approach showed unexpectedly interesting results with a high survival rate (99.76%) as well as normal growth and development (50.58 cm plant length, 6.54 new cladodes per plant) after 9 months in the field. The morphological (fruit length, diameter and weight, pulp weight, water content in the pulp, fresh and dry skin weights, skin/fruit ratio, the number of areoles and seeds per fruit) and physicochemical (pH, soluble solids, antioxidant activity, total phenolics and carotenoids, titratable acidity, reducing sugars, betalains and color) properties of fruits from organogenesis-derived plants were evaluated and compared to those of conventionally propagated plants and the mother plant. No significant difference was found in the studied parameters, except for the number of seeds per fruit, pigments and color values.