Study on the effects of medium, sterilization and hormonal treatment on micropropagation of some apple (Mallus domestica Borkh.) rootstocks

Micropropagation of apple has played an important role in the production of healthy, disease-free plants and in the rapid multiplication of rootstocks with desirable traits. In this study, the effects of disinfection, medium type and plant hormone on contamination, number of lateral branches, shoot length, callus induction, number of leaves of three rootstocks M106, M111 and B9 as factorial experiment in completely randomized design with three replications were investigated. The explants Surface sterilized by different concentrations of mercuric chloride and sodium hypochlorite and then were cultivated in modified MS, WPM and DKW media. The lowest contamination achieved by mercuric chloride (0.1%) and ethanol (70%) for 3 minutes and 30 Seconds, respectively. In this study, the modified MS medium supplemented with 0.1 mg/L BA with maximum growth had more successful establishment. Mean comparisons showed that rootstock M106 in terms of all studied traits, have a significant difference with other rootstocks, and So that the highest shoot length, leaves number and callus induction observed in this rootstock. The maximum branch initiation achieved from medium supplemented by 0.1 mg/ L IBA and 2 mg/ L BAP. The results showed that genotypes respond differently to culture conditions, as the rootstock B9 showed better response to branch initiation than other genotypes.