Open Access

ARTICLE

In Vitro-Propagation of Agave tequilana Weber cv. azul in a Temporary Immersion System

Otilio Vázquez-Martínez¹, Héctor Gordon Núñez-Palenius^1,*, Eugenio M. Pérez-Molphe Balch^2,*, Mauricio Valencia-Posadas¹, Luis Pérez-Moreno¹, Graciela M. L. Ruiz-Aguilar¹, M. Gómez-Lim³

1 División de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Guanajuato, Irapuato, 36500, México
2 Departamento de Química, Centro de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes, 20131, México
3 Departamento de Ingeniería Genética, CINVESTAV Unidad Irapuato, Irapuato, 36500, México

* Corresponding Authors: Héctor Gordon Núñez-Palenius. Email: ; Eugenio M. Pérez-Molphe Balch. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: Plant Physiology for Crop Production and Sustainable Agriculture)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2022, 91(1), 83-96. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2022.017281

Received 28 April 2021; Accepted 01 July 2021; Issue published 16 August 2021

Abstract

In Mexico, there is a need to produce large quantities of plantlets for the establishment and replanting of blue (cv. azul) agave production areas. Most of these plots are within the origin denomination area (DOT, Spanish acronym) of the distilled product of this plant, known as tequila. The objective of this study was to develop an in vitro-propagation protocol for Agave tequilana Weber cv. azul using segmented stems in both: solid and liquid media. A disinfection and in vitro technique were developed to obtain shoots, through plantlets collected in commercial plots, which attained 100% surface-disinfection and budding rate. At the multiplication stage, the effects of 6-Benzylaminopurine (BA) (0.0, 4.4 and 13.2 μM) and kinetin (0.0, 9.4, 18.8 and 37.6 μM) were evaluated on lateral-shoot production of segmented sagittal stems. These were cultivated on Murashige & Skoog (MS) medium, with the addition of 3.0% sucrose and 8 g L⁻¹ agar. It was observed that BA and kinetin increased the number of shoots per explant, obtaining up to 18 and 26, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that just the sagittal segmentation of explants increased axillary budding. On the other hand, segmented-stem bases were grown in MS liquid medium with 3.0% sucrose, inside a RITA® system, programmed by a 5 min immersion step with a frequency of every 4 h. The effect of Indole−3-Acetic acid (IAA) (0.57, 2.9, 5.7 μM) was evaluated, while maintaining a concentration of BA (13.2 μM). It was observed that the greatest concentration of IAA led to the formation of more than 20 buds per explant. These results offer a new methodology to increase the efficiency of A. tequilana Weber cv. azul-in vitro multiplication by sagittal segmentation of stems and the addition of BA and/or IAA.

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