In vitro propagation of the neotropical giant bamboo, Guadua angustifolia Kunth, through axillary shoot proliferation

Guadua angustifolia Kunth was successfully propagated in vitro from axillary buds. Culture initiation, bud sprouting, shoot and plant multiplication, rooting and acclimatization, were evaluated. Best results were obtained using explants from greenhouse-cultivated plants, following a disinfection procedure that comprised the sequential use of an alkaline detergent, a mixture of the fungicide Benomyl and the bactericide Agri-mycin, followed by immersion in sodium hypochlorite (1.5% w/v) for 10 min, and culturing on Murashige and Skoog medium containing 2 ml l−1 of Plant Preservative Mixture®. Highest bud sprouting in original explants was observed when 3 mg l−1 N6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) was incorporated into the culture medium. Production of lateral shoots in in vitro growing plants increased with BAP concentration in culture medium, up to 5 mg l−1, the highest concentration assessed. After six subcultures, clumps of 8–12 axes were obtained, and their division in groups of 3–5 axes allowed multiplication of the plants. Rooting occurred in vitro spontaneously in 100% of the explants that produced lateral shoots. Successful acclimatization of well-rooted clumps of 5–6 axes was achieved in the greenhouse under mist watering in a mixture of soil, sand and rice hulls (1:1:1).UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Centro para Investigaciones en Granos y Semillas (CIGRAS)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Docencia::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Facultad de Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Escuela de Zootecni

In vitro propagation of bamboo species through axillary shoot proliferation: a review

Bamboos, very relevant plants in many countries around the world, are propagated at large scale with extreme difficulties. Use of seeds is challenging because of plant’s sporadic flowering and long flowering cycles, together with seed recalcitrance and consumption by wild animals. Vegetative propagation of bamboo is mainly conducted by cuttings and by air layering. However, these methods are only useful at small-scale because they damage the mother plants, propagation material is bulky and difficult to be transported and is only available during few months of the year. Therefore, in vitro propagation offers the opportunity to obtain large progenies from elite genotypes. In most cases, when developing protocols for in vitro propagation of plants, specific conditions for individual species, genotypes and even development stages of the donor plants must be identified by trial-and-error experiments. Because of the size of and the large diversity observed in this plant family, it usually takes several months to define most adequate culture medium, combination of plant growth regulators and of other compounds for fostering the desired development in the explants. Therefore, in this detailed review, that also puts together results from hard-to-find literature, we list all identified cases, in which development of axillary shoots was used to propagate bamboo plants, by presenting successful ways for disinfection, in vitro bud sprouting, multiplication, rooting and acclimatization.UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Centro para Investigaciones en Granos y Semillas (CIGRAS)UCR::Vicerrectoría de Investigación::Unidades de Investigación::Ciencias Agroalimentarias::Instituto de Investigaciones Agrícolas (IIA