Multiple Shoot Induction of Asparagus (Asparagus Officinalis Var. Uc-157) Through Nodal Stem Culture Technique
Multiple shoot induction is a powerful tool for mass propagation of promisingclones and is essential to asparagus due to its dioecious nature. Along this line anexperimental research conducted to determine the most effective plant growth regulators(PGRs) that would induce multiple shoot formation from asparagus nodalstem explants using agar-solidified Murashige and Skoog (MS) basal medium. Fourcombinations of kinetin or benzyl amino purine (BAP) and naphthalene acetic acid(NAA), arranged in Randomized Complete Block Design, served as treatments withhormone-free MS medium as control. Treatment means were compared using Duncan’sMultiple range Test (DMRT). Only medium supplemented with PGRs initiatedshoots. Among the treatments, the medium containing 0.5 mg/L kinetin and0.1 mg/L NAA, or 0.5 mg/L BAP and 0.1 mg/L NAA significantly induced thehighest percentage (100%) shoots from cultured explants after 15.27 and 22.97 days,respectively. The same PGR combinations produced an average of 3-4 shoots per explantsafter eight weeks of culture. The medium supplemented with 0.5 mg/L kinetinand 0.1 mg/L NAA produced longer shoots (4.64 cm) of which 10% produced roots.This PGR combination is recommended since produced the best shoot attributes andlikewise shorten the duration of in vitro culture.Keywords: Botany, plant tissue culture, multiple shoot induction, experimental design,Cebu City, Philippines