Impact of Salicylic Acid on Micropropagation Efficiency of Grape (cv.  Yaghooti') In Vitro

Grape micropropagation is generally carried out using MS or half strength MS medium along with BAP for proliferation and IBA for rooting. Present experiment was conducted to improve the efficiency of present culture media. Preliminary experiments showed that the half strength MS was more effective than MS for the tested cultivar (‘Yaghooti’). Therefore, this medium was used to further improve the efficiency of micropropagation rate by testing salicylic acid (SA) at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 μM added to culture medium. SA up to 8 μM improved morphological, chemical and biochemical parameters whereas, 10 μM had negative effects on recorded parameters. The most appropriate level of SA was 6μM which increased shoot fresh weight (24%), root fresh weight (27%), shoot length (28%), root length (54%), reducing sugars (46%) and also enhanced the activity of catalase (50%), guiacol peroxidaes (32%), and ascorbate peroxidase (73%) compared to the control. However, the oxidative parameters including malondialdehyde (MDA), other aldehydes and hydrogen peroxides were strongly reduced by 36%, 42% and 27%, respectively when 6μM SA was used. Thus, it is concluded that the half strength MS is not an appropriate medium for micropropation of tested cultivar as the cultures are under stress and 6 μM SA could effectively remove the stress and increased the efficiency rate of micropropagation.