- Home
- Protocols
-
Micropropagation of Prickly Pear by Axillary Shoot Proliferation
Published: Jul 5, 2018 DOI: 10.21769/BioProtoc.2923 Views: 5709
Edited by: Adam Idoine Reviewed by: Jinping Zhao
Download PDF 
Ask a question
Abstract
A protocol for the axillary bud proliferation of prickly pear (Opuntia; Cactaceae) is presented. This genus is widely used as a crop in the arid and semi-arid areas of the globe worldwide, providing numerous benefits for human and animal consumption. In vitro culture for axillary bud proliferation is of great use to obtain a large quantity of plants in a short period of time, with potential uses in production and for the preservation of endangered species of the Opuntia genus.
The optimal medium for Opuntia in vitro culture consists of Murashige and Skoog medium (MS) and L2 vitamins. To increase the yield of the axillary bud proliferation, we recommend the addition of plant growth regulators (PGRs). This work suggests a 15 d incubation in the medium with 2.2 mg/L of benzyl aminopurine (BA) after which the explants are transferred to the medium without PGRs. We explain as well how to adapt the plant to ex vitro conditions.
In vitro culture
Axillary bud proliferation
Ex vitro adaptation
Background
The genus Opuntia (prickly pear) is one of the members of the Cactaceae family (Bravo-Hollis, 1978). Although it is native to the Americas, it currently grows in the wild and commercial plantations of the South of Europe, North of Africa, Australia, Middle East, West Asia and other regions of the world (Ochoa and Barbera, 1995; Kiesling and Metzing, 2017). Prickly pear has profound effects on the arid and semi-arid environments as well as the human communities that live in those areas because of its high biomass yields despite growing in drylands (Acevedo et al., 1983). In many of such areas, the genus Opuntia is exploited for a number of things. The young cladodes of Opuntia can be consumed as a vegetable; the fruit is eaten directly or processed into jelly, juice or sweets (Barba et al., 2017). The whole plant can be used for animal forage, living fence (Las Casas et al., 2017) and recently it started to be used commercially to produce biofuel (Aké Madera, 2014). In addition, the Opuntia genus has a number of bioactive and nutritionally valuable compounds (Betancourt et al., 2017; Melgar et al., 2017).
The advantages of in vitro culture include high proliferation rates and the production of pathogen-free plants (Shedbalkar et al., 2010). In their native environments, some Opuntia species are suffering losses in their populations, due to exploitation without replacement that has been carried out traditionally (Rocha-Flores et al., 2017). In vitro culture thus brings the possibility of recovering the populations of endangered plants (Torres-Silva et al., 2018), as well as a large scale production for agriculture. Here we present a protocol for plant in vitro culture of the Opuntia genus that includes the cytokinin benzyl aminopurine (BA).
Materials and Reagents
- 1,000 glass culture containers (100 ml) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: B8648 )
- Parafilm
- Scapel
- Petri dish
- Nursery trays (International GreenHouse, catalog number: CN-PLG )
- Humidity dome (International GreenHouse, catalog number: PR-DOME7 )
- An Opuntia sp. young tender cladode
- Dishwashing liquid
- Deionized water
- 96% alcohol
- 60% sodium hypochlorite (NaClO) (household bleach)
- 1 N NaOH
- 1 N HCl
- Tween 20 detergent
- Benzyl aminopurine (6-benzyl aminopurine) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: B3408 )
- Activated charcoal (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: C9157 )
- Agar-agar (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: A1296 )
- Sucrose (C12H22O11) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: S5391 )
- Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: A3795 )
- Potassium nitrate (KNO3) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: NIST193 )
- Calcium chloride dihydrate (CaCl2·2H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 223506 )
- Magnesium sulfate heptahydrate (MgSO4·7H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 1374361 )
- Potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: PHR1330 )
- EDTA (Na2EDTA) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: PHR1068 )
- Ferrous sulfate heptahydrate (FeSO4·7H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 1270355 )
- Manganese sulfate tetrahydrate (MnSO4·4H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 229784 )
- Zinc sulfate (ZnSO4·7H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: Z0251 )
- Boric acid (H3BO3) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: B6768 )
- Potassium iodide (KI) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: 746428 )
- Sodium molybdate dihydrate (Na2MoO4·2H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: M1003 )
- Cupric sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4·5H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: C3036 )
- Cobalt chloride hexahydrate (CoCl2·6H2O) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: C2911 )
- Myo-inositol (C6H12O6) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: I7508 )
- Thiamine hydrochloride (C12H17ClN4OS·HCl) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: T1270 )
- Pyridoxine (C8H11NO3) (Sigma-Aldrich, catalog number: P5669 )
- MS + L2 vitamins salts (see Recipes)
- Disinfection solution (see Recipes)
- Maintenance medium (see Recipes)
- Stimulation medium (see Recipes)
- Rooting medium (see Recipes)
- Substrate for ex vitro adaptation (see Recipes)
Equipment
- Tweezers
- Microwave oven
- pH meter
- Weighing balance
- Autoclave
- Laminar flow hood
- Greenhouse
- Growth chamber
Procedure
Category
Plant Science > Plant cell biology > Tissue isolation and culture
Plant Science > Plant breeding > Micropropagation
Do you have any questions about this protocol?
Post your question to gather feedback from the community. We will also invite the authors of this article to respond.
Tips for asking effective questions
+ Description
Write a detailed description. Include all information that will help others answer your question including experimental processes, conditions, and relevant images.
Post a Question
