A direct organogenesis protocol from shoot segments of Solanum tuberosum cv. Monalisa

Transgenic technology is an excellent alternative for improvement of crop production and disease free crops such as potato, which is one of the most important crops worldwide. One of the first steps to apply the transgenic technique is the establishment of an efficient plant regeneration protocol. This is a limiting step in this kind of study, since most protocols are species-specific and some of them do not adequately respond to in vitro culture or present low regeneration rates. The objective of this study was to stablish an efficient regeneration protocol of Solanum tuberosum cv. Monalisa from internodes explants. This work is important since most in vitro protocols are based on shoots. Twenty five treatments were performed, with each treatment being composed of six internodes in flasks containing MS medium supplemented with a fixed concentration of zeatin riboside (3 mg.L) (ZEA), varying concentrations of naphthaleneacetic acid (0 to 1 mg. L) (NAA), and gibberellic acid (0 to 3 mg.L ) (GA3). The treatment composed of ZEA, 0.05 mg.L of NAA, and 0.10 mg.L of GA3 was considered the best for shoot regeneration from potato internodes. The study was able to establish a specific regeneration protocol for Monalisa cultivar. This result can be very useful since it is possible to obtain plants from internode, without the requirement of meristematic regions, enabling the obtainment of a higher number of plants.