Sweet potato has a potential role in combating food shortage and malnutrition following the rapid population growth and limited farmland available. Therefore, invitro multiplication of some food security crops including sweet potato is important. In this study, an efficient and reproducible plant regeneration protocol is optimized for rapid and efficient in-vitro propagation of sweet potato (Ipomoea Batatas L.) cultivar Kulfo. This regeneration protocol is optimized by investigating the types of explants to be used and effects of different hormonal combinations on shoot regeneration. Explants of nodal sections and apical shoot derived from greenhouse-grown sweet potato were cultured in Murashige and Skoog (MS) media supplemented with different combinations of 6-benzyl amino purine (BAP), Naphthalene acetic acid (NAA), Giberilic acid (GA3) ranging from 0.1mg/l to 3mg/l. The highest percentage of shoot regeneration was obtained in MS medium supplemented with1mg/l BAP + 0.1mg/l GA3 responding nodal sections (62%) and apical shoots (59%). The best shoots multiplication medium was obtained when MS supplemented with 2 mg/l BAP + 0.1mg/l NAA. Half MS medium containing 0.1mg/l NAA was the best root inducing medium. Regenerated plants showed 98.2% survival and normal appearance up on acclimatization and field performance. Therefore, the current study can be used in propagation and mass production of virus-free regenerants of sweet potato.

Keywords: Regeneration, Sweet potato, genetic manipulations, explants, micropropagation.