Abstract
A study was carried out for micropropagation of pomegranate (Punica granatum Khadouri). Explants, shoot tips and single nodes from mature trees, were surface sterilized and cultured on full strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) and woody plant medium (WPM) supplemented with benzyl adenine (BA) at 4.5 µM. To test the effect of cytokinin type and concentrations, BA, Kinetin (Kn) and Zeatin (Ze) were used at a concentration ranging from 2.23 to 13.5 µM. Results indicated that single node explants responded better than shoot tips based on number of growing shoots, number of leaf per explant and shoot length. Woody plant medium was superior to MS medium in shoot number and shoot length. Type and concentration of cytokinin significantly influenced shoot proliferation, BA and kinetin achieved the highest shoot proliferation as compared to zeatine. The maximum number of shoots per explant (2.9) was developed on medium containing 9.0 µM BA. Rooting of microshoots was achieved either in vitro using NAA at 1.0 µM or ex vitro using 500 mg/L quick dip. The latter procedure gave higher rooting percentage (90%) and produced well-grown and acclimatized plantlets in soil:peat moss mix (1:1 v/v).