Phenolic Exudation Control and Establishment of In vitro Strawberry (Fragaria × Ananassa) cv. Chandler

The rate of strawberry propagation through conventional technique is quite low and it is difficult to maintain planting material during the summer months under Bihar condition. Further, importing mother plants adds to the production cost. In vitro micro propagation has emerged as a potential alternative for supplying planting material for strawberry. Two type of explants viz., runner tip and nodal segment were used for the study. Phenol exudation was the major problem during establishment which caused death of majority explants. In our experiment, almost no phenolic exudation (+) and maximum percent regeneration for runner tip (55.2 ± 0.52%) and nodal segment (58.1 ± 0.54%) was observed when MS medium was supplemented with ascorbic acid 200 mg per liter. Phenolic exudation was recorded highest (++++) under control when no antioxidants were supplemented. Minimum number of days for runner tips (8.4 ± 0.23) and nodal segments (10.3 ± 0.33) taken for shoot proliferation was observed when MS medium was supplemented with activated charcoal 300 mg and 200 mg per liter, respectively. Though all other antioxidants used in our study including citric acid, PVP and activated charcoal significantly reduced oxidative browning, ascorbic acid was found to be most effective antioxidant in controlling lethal browning during in vitro establishment of strawberry. This protocol has a potential for allowing a large scale multiplication of this important crop.