MICROPROPAGATION RESPONSE AND PLANTLET QUALITY OF CACAO (Theobroma cacao L.) VAR. UF 18 USING MERISTEM TIP CULTURE AS INFLUENCED BY DIFFERENT LEVELS OF PLANT GROWTH REGULATORS
Keywords:
cacao (Theobroma cacao L.), plant growth regulators, sterilization protocol, terminal meristems, axillary meristem, micropropagationAbstract
Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.) is increasingly recognized as a major contributor to economic development in many countries. The Philippines, however, still exports at low levels despite its competitive advantages, largely because high mortality of plant material limits the supply of quality cacao planting materials. This study aimed to establish a sterilization protocol using two-step sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) treatment, to evaluate the response of terminal and axillary meristems of cacao var. UF18 to different levels of plant growth regulators (PGRs), and to determine the concentration and combination of PGRs that give a higher rate of plantlet regeneration. Meristem tips from a pathogen-screened donor plant were sterilized with 2% NaOCl (20 min) followed by 1% NaOCl (10 min) and cultured for three months on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium alone or supplemented with 0.5 mg L−1 GA3 and increasing levels of kinetin (0.5–2.0 mg L−1) and naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA; 0.1–0.7 mg L−1). The experiment was a two-factor factorial in a Completely Randomized Design with three replications of 10 explants each; data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD at the 5% level. The two-step sterilization gave a survival rate of 78.33% (contamination, 21.67%) in T4 (MS + 0.5 mg L−1 GA3 + 1.5 mg L−1 kinetin + 0.5 mg L−1 NAA), although differences among treatments were not significant. Terminal meristems consistently produced taller plantlets than axillary meristems (11.50 vs. 8.38 mm after three months) and thicker stems at the third month (5.63 vs. 5.02 mm). Among the PGR-supplemented treatments, T4 gave the earliest leaf formation in both terminal (4.53) and axillary (4.60) meristems and T2 the earliest shoot formation (6.05 and 6.06, respectively). MS alone produced no leaves or shoots, whereas all PGR-supplemented treatments did. Axillary meristems formed leaves and shoots slightly earlier and produced numerically more shoots (1.27 vs. 1.20 per explant) and longer shoots (2.16 vs. 1.99 mm) at three months, suggesting that axillary meristems are the more suitable explant source for micropropagation of Theobroma cacao, with moderate kinetin and NAA levels (T3 and T4) giving the best overall response.
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