Evaluation of morphological and biochemical traits in seedlings of four early and late potato cultivars in vitro

Considering the importance of potato in the economy and human nutrition, the need to produce healthy seeds through tissue culture in order to increase the quality of the tuber and ultimately maintain the yield of the product is noticeable. In this regard, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the morphological and biochemical traits in the seedlings of four early and late potato cultivars under in vitro conditions. Four commercial varieties of potato were cultivated as single-node microspecimens in MS culture medium without any plant growth regulators. Seedlings grew after 5 weeks. Seedlings were evaluated in terms of morphological traits (number of seedlings produced from one seedling, stem length, number of branches, nodes, roots and micro-gland) as well as biochemical traits (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoid, anthocyanin, catalase enzyme activity and polyphenol oxidase enzyme activity). In morphological traits, late cultivar Satina, number of seedlings and stem length, and early cultivar Sante showed more roots than other cultivars. In the study of biochemical traits, the late cultivar Agria was superior to other cultivars in terms of the amount of pigments and catalase enzyme. In the same vegetative conditions, different cultivars have different potential in vegetative and biochemical traits. The growth pattern of different genotypes is determined by the synthesis of food and different levels of internal hormones and the balance between them, and as a result, they give different responses to the conditions of the culture environment. The present study showed that in the same vegetative conditions, the early cultivars of Satina in terms of vegetative traits and Agria in terms of the amount of pigments can be selected for mass cultivation.