Controlling the in vitro Contamination of Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) Single Nodes Explant by Nano-Silver

The carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus) is one of the top-selling commercial cut-flower crops worldwide, which is very susceptible to infections. Micro propagation is an advanced biotechnological system for producing free of pathogen colonies. Too many factors may limit micro propagation of plants, which the most important of them is contamination (e.g., fungal, bacterial and viral infections). There are some methods and chemicals which are available to control in vitro contaminations. However, the efficiency of some of these methods is low, and/or some of them are too toxic. Mercury chloride as an example is very effective, but it is very toxic. Nanotechnology is relevant to diverse fields of science and technology. Antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles (new and nontoxic material) is important to control conventional microbial agents. The aim of the current study was to evaluate the potential of Nano–silver particles on decontaminations of nodal segments of carnation in in vitro propagation. In this experiment the effects of application of different rates of Nano-silver (0,100,200 and 300 ppm) through immersion in Nano-silver solution for 10 minutes after surface sterilization were evaluated. Surface sterilization by immersion explants in 70% ethanol for 30 seconds and following by immersion in 2.5% Clorox for 2 minutes were done. The experimental design was a Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with five replications and 3 explants per vessel. Results of disinfestations of Carnation single nodes demonstrated that treatment of 200ppm was effective to control bacterial contaminations and had no harmful effects on regeneration of explants. Higher rates of Nano-silver caused severe injuries to the explants. We observed that using low concentrations of Nano-silver can be used as a low risk bactericide in Carnation single node tissue culture, but, had no effects on controlling fungal contaminations.