Screening of Some Potato (SolanumtuberosumL.) Varieties for Osmotic Stress Tolerance Using Growth Parameters in-vitro

Abstract

he experiment was conducted in order to study the effect of osmotic stress on some morphological traits in five potato varieties grown in-vitro. Osmotic potential was applied by adding - 0.82, - 1.09, - 1.44, and - 1.79 MPa of sorbitol to Murashige-Skoog (MS) medium. Results revealed a genetic variability in the response of the investigated varieties for osmotic stress based. Progressive reduction in the studied parameters occurred as osmotic stress increased compared with the control. Grouping all the varieties by cluster analysis, based on the growth parameters response to osmotic stress showed three distinct groups. The Osmotic stress tolerant group, which included one variety (Soraya), the moderately osmotic stress tolerant group, included three varieties (Faluka, Challenger and Tarus) and the osmotic stress susceptible group, included one variety (Royal). These results indicated the possibility of using the screening in-vitro to evaluate the genetic variability of potato varieties for osmotic stress tolerance.