Disinfestation of Agave angustifolia Haw. collected in the field prior to in vitro culture

Resumen

Objective: to determine a disinfestation procedure for in vitro establishing of Agave angustifolia Haw. explants collected in the field.

Design/ Methodology/ Approach: seven agave plants per treatment were placed in perlite to contrast six treatments; two agrochemicals (Benomyl 2 g L^-1 and Actara 0.5 g L^-1) and three contact times (10, 20 and 30 days). The stems of the plants were sectioned in 4 – 6 segments, after treatment with alcohol 80%, chlorine 30% and hydrogen peroxide 20%, to later place them in vitro. Usually there is contamination of explants mainly by bacteria, so Pursue® was used at 25 and 50%, placing 20 explants in each concentration for 1 minute. The variables evaluated were percentage of visibly healthy explants, type of contamination. Due to the difference in the number of explants, no statistical tests were performed.

Results: the plants treated with Benomyl presented less contamination by fungi without considering the contact time. Bacteria were present in the different treatments used, however, in the explants with pretreated with Benomyl, 85% was obtained visibly healthy when Pursue^® at 50% was used.

Study limitations/ Implications: other agrochemicals, such as specific bactericides are desirable to determine through their use, whether they mitigate in vitro contamination by pathogenic bacteria.

Findings/ Conclusions: pretreatments with agrochemicals for the in vitro establishing of plants collected from the field are necessary to increase the number of visually healthy explants. With the Pursue^® product at 50%, up to 85% of explants can be obtained without the presence of fungi or bacteria.