IN VITROPROPAGATION OF LISIANTHUS PLANT (Eustoma grandiflorum) UTILIZING PHYTOHORMONES AND PERIODICAL SUBCULTURES

Successful proliferation of adventitious shoots via periodical subcultures in Lisianthus plant was achieved. This study showed the essential role of Kinetin (Kin) as a single exogenous plant growth regulator on the micro-propagation of Lisianthus. At the shoots production phase, the highest average of shoot numbers (5.4) was achieved on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 3 mg.L-1 of Kin. During periodical subcultures, shoots multiplication increased gradually up to the fourth subculture. The highest average of shoot numbers (9) was observed at the third subculture and the highest shoots length (6 cm) was recorded at the fourth subculture on MS medium containing 2 mg.L-1 of Kin Shoots rooted easily on MS medium containing 1 mg L-1mg L-1 of IBA. The plantlets derived from this procedure were successfully acclimatized in a mixture of soil and peat moss (1:1, v/v) with 80% of survival percentage. The reported results have a high practical value in the field of Lisianthus micropropagation. Keywords: In vitro culture, Lisianthus, Micropropagation, Periodical subcultures, Single growth regulator.