Abstract

Tissue culture techniques have opened a new frontier in agricultural science by addressing food security and agricultural production issues. A study was conducted to compare growth and yield characteristics between the tissue culture regenerated and conventionally propagated sweet potato cultivars. Five locally adapted sweet potato cultivars Mugande, SPK004, Kemb10, Japon tresmesino and Zapallo were regenerated in vitro by the methods of indirect and direct embryogenesis and grown under field conditions in a RCBD replicated three times. Significant (P<0.05) interaction was detected between the test cultivars and regeneration method for the growth and yield variables. The highest tuber numbers and marketable yield was recorded withZapallo. Conventional propagation method gave highest growth rates however the difference in yield between the conventional propagation and tissue culture regenerated plants did not vary significantly (P<0.05). Likewise, virus detection for SPFMV by ELISA established that field plants had a higher virus titre compared to the tissue culture regenerated plants.

Key words: Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), tissue culture, regeneration, embryogenesis, propagation method.