Influence of Selection Criteria of Elite Plants on Micropogation in Asparagus

Male and female plants of Asparagus selected by high total Yield (Y), Spear Number (SN) and mean Spear Weight (SW) are used for hybrids production. In order to establish the influence of the selection criteria on elite plants towards in vitro micropropagation, 20 shoot tips each of 27 genotypes selected by high Y (10), great SN (8) and superior SW (9) were cultured on MS medium with NAA (2.5 mg L-1) and Kinetin (2.5 mg L-1). The Induction Rate (IR): explants number induced/total explants cultured, the Prolificity Rate (PR): shoots number developed/explants number induced and the Rooting Rate (RR) were evaluated by the ANOVA nested procedure. The IR of elite plants selected by Y, SN and SM were 64, 51 and 39%, respectively, whereas no significant differences were shown between sexes. On the same way, the PR pointed out significant differences towards the selection criteria. The selected plants by Y showed higher values (3.3) than the ones selected by SW and SN (2.5). Furthermore, no significant difference was found between male and female plants. To sum up, the micropropagation of Asparagus shoots cultured Asparagus in vitro established significant differences considering selection criteria and the aim of an efficient micropropagation can be achieved by using elite plants selected by Y.