Induction of in Vitro Sweet Potato Plant (Ipomoea Batatas) Tolerant to Sea Water

Abstract

This study aims to develop an efficient in vitro propagation protocol for the Egyptian sweet potato cultivar (Abees) (Ipomea batatas), which confers seawater salinity tolerance using the modified exchangeable selection cycles system (ESC) which is an effective screening method for estimating and developing salt tolerance in tuber plants, providing an effective selection. Different seawater
concentrations were 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000, 7000, 8000, 9000, 10000, 11000 and 12000 ppm. The variety (Abees) showed tolerance to seawater salinity at 3000 ppm. All plant growth rates were recorded after each exchangeable selection cycle. The modified exchangeable selection cycles provided an effective in vitro selection method for developing salinity tolerance and led to an increase
in seawater salinity tolerances up to 10,000 ppm of the sweet potato cultivar (Abees) recording shoot length at 7.0 ± 0.70 cm, Number of leaves /shoot at 5.6 ± 0.5, root length at 13.4 ± 1.8 cm and number of roots/ shoot at 7.6 ± 0.5 and the analyses of proline content and total chlorophyll were performed. Exchangeable selection cycles allow crops to be grown and irrigated entirely with seawater when fresh irrigation water is limited. Ultimately, the selected in vitro sweet potato plantlets that thrive in saline seawater can contribute to the production of new varieties of salt-tolerant sweet potatoes.