Evaluating suitable low-cost agar substitutes, clarity, stability, and toxicity for resource-poor countries' tissue culture media

• Published in: In vitro cellular & developmental biology. Plant Vol. 58; no. 6; pp. 989 - 1001
• Main Authors: Ebile, Pride Anya, Opata, John, Hegele, Suputtra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-12-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agar; Beans; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cassava; Cell Biology; Clarity; Crops; Cultivars; Culture media; Developing countries; Developmental Biology; Endangered & extinct species; Evaluation; Explants; Extinction; Flowers & plants; Food plants; Food security; LDCs; Life Sciences; Low cost; Minimum cost; Plant Breeding/Biotechnology; Plant Genetics and Genomics; Plant propagation; Plant Sciences; Plant species; Plant Tissue Culture; Plant tissues; Plantains; Propagation; Rice; Rural areas; Seeds; Species extinction; Stability analysis; Starch; Substrates; Threatened species; Tissue culture; Toxicity; Vigna radiata; Xanthan; Africa; Isabgol; Tissue culture; Gelling agent; Food security; Mung bean
• ISSN: 1054-5476; 1475-2689
• DOI: 10.1007/s11627-022-10285-6

Over 20% of plant species assessed are threatened with extinction. Most of these plants have food security implications, especially in developing countries. Traditional seeds and cutting propagation techniques cannot counter the loss rate, and tissue culture provides a fast alternative to conventional propagation techniques. However, tissue culture has been considered too expensive for developing countries negatively impacted by food insecurity. A gelling agent is the costliest media component in plant tissue culture. This study aims to assess different gelling agents to find suitable ones with low cost and acceptable gelling properties for developing countries, especially in rural areas. Plantain explants were propagated on 16 starch-based substrates to evaluate their suitability as tissue culture gelling agents. This study compared the cost of various substrates and their gelling properties, such as clarity, toxicity, and texture, with agar as a reference gelling agent. Some substrates, such as xanthan, had good gelling properties, but their cost was too high (5.98 Euro L
−1
) to be considered low-cost. Other substrates, such as cassava starch, did not have suitable gelling properties; however, the cost was low (0.99 Euro L
−1
). Two of the substrates, mung bean and Isabgol, had suitable gelling properties and cost less than one euro. Therefore, smallholder banana and plantain farmers in resource-poor countries can undertake tissue culture operations with mung bean and Isabgol as gelling agents with minimum cost.