Research Note : MICROPROPAGATION OF MULBERRY- A REVIEW M. Swetha Priya and P. Sujathamma Department of Sericulture, Sri Padmavati Mahila Visvavidyalayam,Tirupati (A.P.) *Corresponding Author’s E-mail : swethapriyapamulapati@gmail.com ABSTRACT : Mulberry belongs to the genus Morus and family Moraceae. Mulberry is distributed in tropical, subtropical and temperate zones. Conventional breeding is limited in mulberry due to high heterozygosity and long generation period. Many of the newly developed mulberry varieties cannot be propagated through stem cutting. Many desired cultivars do not root easily or have low rooting ability. Such difficult varieties could be multiplied by using tissue culture techniques. Micropropagation is a technique used to produce the plants in vitro by providing requirements for their growth, using proper growth hormones, through which plants can multiply and regenerates in in vitro conditions and as a result we can multiply plants using suitable explants on nutrient media. Advanced methodologies in micropropagation of mulberry have been made by several researchers using different explants and media. The present review is pertaining to the in vitro studies which have already been carried out in Morus. Keywords : Morus spp., explant, micropropagation. Sericulture provides gainful employment, economic development and improvement in the quality of life to the people in rural areas. For increasing the silk production there is requirement of highly productive mulberry varieties and also varieties tolerant to adverse climatic conditions and diseases. Mulberry is mainly cultivated for the leaf which forms the sole food for silkworm, a monophagous insects. Mulberry is fast growing deciduous perennial woody tree with a deep root system. Propagation of mulberry through seeds is undesirable due to enormous variation in the population. Vegetative propagation by cuttings of some newly developed varieties is often difficult to root or have poor rooting ability. Since it is difficult to produce the new breed through stem cutting, micropropagation is very useful as substitute for stem cutting. Thus micropropagation provides many advantages over conventional propagation methods such as development of product at faster rate, uniform growth and development, shorter duration, lesser space, high multiplication capacity, synthesis of elite genetically engineered products and in vitro storage of germplasm, allowing the survival of difficult to root and shoots, and the development of virus free plants. Tissue culture involves the maintenance of plant cells or organs in sterile conditions (in vitro). Almost all plant parts including leaf bits, axillary buds, isolated cells and protoplasts can be used as explants. Micropropagation allows multiplication of plants in short period under aseptic conditions. Through in vitro propagation new and elite plants can be mass propagated with far greater speed than traditional methods. Thus tissue culture is important for rapid introduction of improved varieties with superior quality for sustainable growth of sericulture. Patnaik and Chand (8) achieved a high frequency bud break in all the three varieties of Morus cathayana Hems L. M. thoukoiz, and M. serrata Roxb due to gibberellic acid and also achieved a high frequency bud break and multiple shoot development from nodal explants of M.austrilis, cultured on MS medium fortified with BAP 1.0 mg/l and GA 3 0.3mg/l . The shoots were successfully rooted on half strength MS medium with IAA, IBA, IPA each of 0.1mg/l. Plantlets were success- fully hardened and transplanted into the field. Zaman et al. (11) noticed that Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium was found to be best followed by woody plant (WP) medium. Efforts have been made to search for an efficient protocol for year round mulberry propagation through in vitro techniques by single node culture. They noticed highest percentage (93.2%) of shoot prolife- ration in MS medium with 5.0ìM Benzyladenine (BA). Best rooting was achieved in low concentration 1.0 ìM of Indolebutyric acid (IBA) alone. In vitro derived plantlets were acclimatized and 85-90% survival of plants was observed. In a study on response of Morus multicaulis cv. Ghoshoerami and M. indica CVS, K 2 , RFS 175 and SI, in in vitro conditions, Tewari et al. (10) reported that the HortFlora Research Spectrum www.hortflorajournal.com Vol. 6, Issue 3; 218-220 (September 2017) ISSN: 2250-2823 Article’s History: Received : 27-06-2017 Accepted : 25-07-2017 NAAS Rating : 3.78